


Itsy Bitsy Spooder

by Mad_Madame_Mim, therentistoodamnhigh



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Anal Sex, Biting, Body Horror, Existential Crisis, Hurt/Comfort, Mind Control, Oral Sex, Other, Oviposition, Rape/Non-con Elements, Torture, Wetting, anti is part fucking spider, arachnophobia triggers, bad things happen to a sweet and snarky college kid, i'm sorry irwin i love you tho, inappropriately adorable endings, irwin having a minor crisis about their gender and general existence, mentions of torture and minor gore, non consensual metamorphosis, non-human sex, spider monsters, unwilling stimulation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2019-05-25 13:54:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 4
Words: 27,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14978552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mad_Madame_Mim/pseuds/Mad_Madame_Mim, https://archiveofourown.org/users/therentistoodamnhigh/pseuds/therentistoodamnhigh
Summary: RP-turned-fic. Anti has been keeping an eye (or three or four) on Professor Iplier's intern Irwin for quite some time, and wants to elevate the intern from "bait for eldritch monstrosities" to a strong spider monster like himself.Irwin isn't anywhere near as keen on the idea, though.Or: In which Anti turns an exhausted college student into a fucking spider monster against their will.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> irwin is from my fic "Knowlegde is Power" and this version of Anti is mim's, who saw [this fic series](https://archiveofourown.org/series/812898) where dark is an arachnid demon and thought "what if anti was a spider tho", thus birthing this monstrosity of an rp.
> 
> some more context before you go ahead:  
> -anti calls irwin "starbucks" bc they drink so much coffee  
> -we have a running joke that anti is irwin's mom and the prof is their dad  
> -we started calling anti a spooder and literally could not stop
> 
> i cannot possibly understate how dark this fic is, so tread carefully, and let us know if it needs other tags. i'll be posting the other chapters each day

Irwin slammed the door to their apartment behind them as they entered and dropped their heavy backpack to the floor. They sighed heavily, leaning back against the door. They'd had a very long day working with the Professor, and they'd been used as bait for yet another summoning, but it was fine because this particular eldritch horror didn't need blood to be summoned which was great. 

They were currently between roommates, which was just fine by them, as they didn't have to deal with other people witnessing the weird shit they had to do for the Professor, including coming home with a peculiar assortment of injuries and also traveling by... void?? Irwin had never gotten a clear answer on what exactly the fuck was the black portal the Professor sometimes had them walk through to get home.

But now they were home, and they were looking forward to warming up some leftovers and vegging out on the couch with some netflix and- oh, fucking  _ fantastic _ .

"Seriously Anti??" Irwin griped at the spider monster, who was crocheting at their dinner table. "What the fuck do you want?" Irwin locked the apartment door, and picked up their backpack again, only to plop it down next to the couch. They returned to the kitchen and steadfastly ignored Anti as they went about warming up dinner.

As far as Irwin was concerned, Anti was a nuisance at best, and terrifying at worst. Irwin treated him with the same amount of "give no fucks" that they treated other eldritch beings with, but Anti seemed to like their snarky attitude. Why the Prof had taken a liking to the spidery creature they'd never understand, let alone why the Professor would leave them under Anti's watchful eyes periodically. Whatever.

There was a familiar vibration in the webbing Anti had laid over Irwin's home, coming from outside. A yawning, abyssal crack in time and space that ate up a chunk of his web like a perfect little cookie cutter of destruction, before fucking off back wherever that Eldritch Mr. Frizzle sent them from. The amount of added work they heralded was an annoyance normally soothed by seeing his angry little Starbucks trip through their front door.

Angry, frightened, often sulky, they were an adorable thing, screaming or raging at the sight of him. Those freckles and that crown of impossible hair just demanded paps. And scritches. 

But as Irwin came through the door, the usual pout plastered on their features, tired movements and weary growls of annoyance belying how exhausted they were, even as Anti could almost  _ taste _ that fear dancing at the back of their mind, like a dog barking at a puma, at once too bored to eat it, but both knowing how easy that would be.

Except Anti was anything but bored. He had quite a bit going through his mind, at the moment. Human foot tapping, human hands holding the yarn ball he was feeding into his myriad spider legs, above -surprisingly not silk, but good old alpaca wool. Soft and warm and good for hats- his black eyes were thoughtful as he silently appraised the little thing.

The silence stretched as he watched them prepare dinner, head canted slightly to the side, features unreadably alien as he continued making that fluffy green cap, which looked more like an elf bonnet than anything. He'd been waiting a while, and merely added to the design as he did.

Next to him sat a matching scarf and mug cozy, letters picked out on the latter so that when stretched around a mug they'd be visible to say "Coffee First, Stupidity Second."

"How was your day?" Avoiding the question, he began sliding the yarn ball off his claws. The spider legs slowly clicked their sharpened tips to the floor.

Irwin squinted suspiciously at Anti for a moment before opening the microwave and popping in a box of leftover takeout inside and pushing in the time. "We had another summoning today. Didn't need any blood, which was a pleasant surprise. They were awful prickly though, tested the hell out of my patience too. It was pretty tiring." The microwave beeped at them, and they pulled out the warm box of takeout and plopped down at the table across from Anti with a pair of chopsticks. 

Irwin leaned forward to see what Anti had made. "You were here long enough to make a whole fucking scarf?!" they exclaimed through a mouthful of fried rice. "I'm not sure whether to be creeped out or impressed."

Anti's smile was lazy and slow. His stabbing limbs were not. Two of the deadly things that weren't being used for making the hat slashed forward, clacking together in a grating, chitinous fashion, deftly snagging a noodly looking thing -noodles were a safe bet with most college students, given that their blood alcohol level was perpetually at "Ramen Toxicity,"- just like a pair of gigantic chopsticks, and brought it back to his mouth.

It was rare that those limbs moved that speedily without returning bloody.

"My hooks are faster than most." The smile grew, though his black eyes remained critical, as if measuring something. Coming up well enough, he nodded to himself.

Finishing repacking his yarn, Anti muttered, "Most of the Things you speak to are prickly, tentacley, or at the very least, a teacher. You've done a pretty decent job making them like you." There was a note of pride in his tone, right up until the flavour of the "food" hit him and he shuddered. "I still don't know how you can stomach that."

Irwin blinked at the speed with which Anti snatched a package of ramen and scowled. Rude. They clenched their jaw and stabbed grumpily at their food while Anti bestowed a bit of praise. They were  _ not _ going to get flustered by the words of a spider bitch, nope. 

"First of all, bitch, that's  _ my _ food. If you don't like it, don't eat it. Second, you ate it uncooked, package and everything, of  _ course _ it's gonna taste gross, you dumbass. Third-" here Irwin paused to spear a piece of orange chicken and pop it in his mouth, "-my job only lets me work so many hours as a full-time student, and the amount the Prof gives me under the table only covers just enough for all my monthly fees. I literally can't afford decent food. If you wanna buy me better food, be my fuckin' guest."

Those black eyes were starting to get  _ really _ unnerving, and Irwin steadfastly ignored the creeping dread in their stomach.

"I unwrapped it," Anti defended. "Mostly." Surreptitiously, he slid a piece of plastic out of his teeth. "I thought these were like a rice cake." Idly, he thunked it on the table, leaving ramen crumbs scattering along the surface.

Deciding to ignore the nasty noodle cookie, Anti instead assured, "I can give you much better food. And you'll have more skills at your disposal, soon, to achieve some, yourself." From anyone else, this would sound like the usual college shpiel; _ you'll go far! _ From a an over five foot spider monster with eight, shining black death limbs capable of drawing and quartering a victim, it sounded, frankly, ominous.

The legs were all easing to the floor as Anti seemed content to let them finish their food. His foot kept tapping, though.

Almost as an afterthought, two of those limbs dropped the scarf on their shoulders. "You shouldn't let yourself get cold. You'll get ill."

Irwin internally lamented the fact that they would have yet another thing to clean up at some point. They'd just been too busy to do much of any house cleaning or upkeep, so the the apartment was a filthy mess, but Anti didn't seem to mind it at all.

Irwin paused, chopsticks halfway to their mouth, when Anti had stated that they could, in fact, provide them with food and out of all the things Anti had said to them, it was probably the most quietly sinister. "Is that an offer or a threat? Cus I dunno what your concept of "better food" is, but it's probably  _ miles _ different from mine," they stated, keeping up the 'give no fucks' facade.

Irwin finished their food in short order, and was scraping the last few grains of rice out from the container when the scarf got plopped around his shoulders. He set down the empty takeout box and the chopsticks and carefully fingered the material, as if expecting some kind of trick. "Hey, this is actually pretty soft," they said, mildly surprised.

"Most things I say are a promise," Anti shrugged, as if _ that _ weren't normally a statement he gave struggling victims. "And as for _ miles _ , I think it's gotten a fair bit closer than you believe." His eyes narrowed at Irwin's continued flippant attitude, only to flit away as they mumbled over the soft material.

Smiling a bit, as he stood, he rumbled, "Alpaca yarn, not silk, but still very soft. It's from an animal friendly farm, too, if that makes you feel better.  _ Yarnivore _ has a shit tonne of good wools." The almost goofy levels of fangirling in his static-laced bass were oddly balanced with the limbs casually dumping that awful noodle cookie in the trash as he made his way closer to the couch, prodding the heavy backpack with a foot.

How these scrawny things seemed to be able to haul their own weight in books always startled Anti. Were all college students part ant? Is that why they swarmed around their University, so?

"You completed Finals, today, yeah? How do you think you did?" Still a bit chilly for their summer freedom from the College Anthill, but Anti would be able to regulate temperature, pretty easily, he thought, glancing back at Irwin with that same measuring expression, before finally looking satisfied with what he saw. Such a good coffee bean.

"Well, my stats final was a bitch and a half to complete," Irwin said as they folded up the scarf neatly. They tossed the empty takeout box in the tash, and the chopsticks near the sink. Oof, that was a lot of dishes they'd have to do. 

"I think I did pretty well on my Mayan Culture final though. I'm pretty happy with how I did over all though. No doubt Professor Iplier is gonna basically kidnap me over the summer." They let out a little laugh and walked over to the armchair and sat down, pulling out their phone and folding their legs under them. The Professor had taught them to always keep otherworldly beings in their field of vision, and Irwin wasn't about to stop that practice now.

"He wants me to go to grad school, said he's totally willing to pay all my tuition if my parents don't want to," they rambled. "He even went off on a tangent about setting up a room for me at his place so that I could stay overnight so that we can do summonings that require more prep. He's  _ weirdly _ enthusiastic about the whole thing. Anyway, you never answered my question. What are you even doing here?"

"I'm surprised your family has no plans for you, over the summer," Anti lied through his teeth, still ignoring the question as he rounded the couch to face his little Starbucks, already in such a good spot. It was like they knew what was meant of them. Good bean.

As for that Iplier ego... A quick frown glitched along Anti's features. The man could wait his turn. Anti was going to have Irwin first. If anything, the Professor should be pleased: he'd soon have a tougher Intern. One less likely to bleed to death during his rituals.

Or maybe that was the point. Either way, Anti had work to do, and the brainsucker could wait.

Instead of answering, he idly relaxed his limbs until they made a cage leading up to the armchair, making it that much harder for his little bean to bolt. There was a pleasant chittering as Anti looked down at the snarky thing, wrapped up in those bulky clothes to hide previous scars left by both of their "guardians."

"You'll have time for grad school, if you apply yourself," he assured, drawing closer, until the light from the phone screen caused both sets of facial eyes to glow a piercing white-green. "The dear Professor can take the time to set up a room, for you, though, as I have a place made, already." His voice was lowering, glitching at the edges as those legs scooped further and further around the chair.

"I mean, sure I'll visit them, but-" Irwin cut themself off as those long, black legs formed a cage around their chair. They were made painfully aware of Anti's otherworldly nature as those eyes reflected unnaturally, and his voice grated against their ears, their brain.  Irwin had had a really,  _ really _ bad feeling about this, and dread filled their stomach as they slowly raised their head to look Anti in the eyes.

They turned off their phone, and set it aside on the arm of the chair. Anti clearly had some Plans™ that he seemed keen on enacting tonight, and Irwin didn't want their phone to get destroyed in the process. It had happened too many times already, and they only had so much money to keep getting new phones.

"I trust the Professor with my life," Irwin said quietly, steeling their spine they same way they did when they had to talk to outer gods. "You however, are an entirely different story. Since you have a habit of not letting me have a choice in matters, I want to know just what the hell you have planned for me." Irwin was acutely aware of those  sharpened tips of the spider legs curling around the back of his chair, and prayed to whatever beings that would hear them that Anti's "plans" didn't involve them dying.

"So  _ very _ much," Anti answered without answering anything, reaching out to run his fingers through that unmanageable set of brown curls, a faint smile growing with that contented chittering sound as he examined that adorable field of freckles raging across Irwin's nose. Why was it that people with freckles hated them, so much? They looked precious. 

His other hand reached up, claws forming, to grip Irwin's chin. "Similar to your Professor, I want to bring out your full potential, Starbucks. I plan to make you far more than just a bloodied up little intern to the outer gods, or even just a simple Puppet."

His thumb claw was sliding back and forth, along the human's lips, drawing tempting lines of silk as it went, calling for entry, to have just a taste... Soft and sticky and hauntingly close.

Meanwhile more silk was being woven by the spider limbs, gently eased over Irwin's bent legs, two more brushing gently along their arms.

Eventually, face melting into a terrifyingly sweet smile, Anti purred, "I plan on making you a proper young Spiderling."

Dread was turning into fear, heart starting to pound in Irwin's chest. Anti was touching them, which wasn't exactly new, but this time it felt different, heavier and full of intent. His hands were so gentle, and the touch-starved corners of their soul longed to press their head into that hand running through their hair. But they stayed still. The most important part of dealing with these creatures was self-restraint, no matter what happened. 

Anti's words were enticing, so tempting. They  _ did _ want to be more than an intern, and if they'd been a lesser being, they would've opened up their mouth to that damnably soft silk. As it was, they just clenched their jaw shut and spoke through their teeth. "What, a monster like you? What if I don't  _ want _ to be like you?" They knew the futility of their words even as they spoke them, and soft silk grew over their legs and arms like the gentlest of terrors.

Panic grew slowly in their chest, and Irwin forced their breathing slow and calm.

"Oh, Starbucks. You  _ will _ ." There was no doubt in that chittering, white noise voice. Anti's legs never stopped churning, bringing coils of silk around Irwin's bent knees, their wrists and up to the elbows, until they were eventually bound in that same kneeling position.

Anti was tilting their jaw up almost lovingly, stroking that hair back as that thumb claw continued to slip from side to side, as the monster bent to press venom laden kisses along their jaw, deadening the muscles that held their teeth so tightly clenched. 

Then, taking two steps backwards, Anti used his spider limbs to gently scoop Irwin forward, setting them on the floor, just in front of the chair, on their bound knees.

"I'll help you through it, Irwin. You'll do fine. I know what things you are capable of, how far you can be pushed. You'll be such a  _ spectacular _ power, you have my word." His words felt more old fashioned than usual, but that rumbling bass and off current hiss still threaded through it.

The hand petting Irwin's hair stopped, instead reaching back to start unbuckling the monsters jeans. 

Meanwhile, that claw dug further, working at prying those teeth apart.

Irwin's eyes widened behind their glasses, and with two sickly sweet kisses to their jaw, they could feel their mouth starting to go slack, and they tried so very hard to clench their jaw shut as long as possible. "No, no, nononono," they babbled in a panic, and suddenly they couldn't move their arms or legs as they were placed too gently on the floor. They jerked against the bonds, adrenaline fueling their efforts to try and gain freedom.

Anti's words were meant to be soothing, but the panic just welled up higher inside them. Anti was actively telling them this was going to be unpleasant, and the fucker was petting their hair like it was going to calm them down. Fucking asshole.

But then Anti's hand went to his jeans and Irwin was suddenly,  _ acutely _ aware of what was about to happen and they struggled in earnest, making noises of protest in their throat as that claw pressed inexorably inwards, pulling at their teeth and jaw. Terrified tears started welling up in their eyes, knowing with awful certainty that they were about to be orally raped. They could feel the build-up of silk on their chin, and they longed to tear it off.

All the while, they could almost hear the Professor telling them to calm down, be still, the Otherworldly will always make the process more unpleasant if they know you're panicking.

The stammering helped, if anything, so Anti didn't shush the little thing. Instead, he worked his thumb spinneret deeper, clicking past white teeth with a bit of orange staining the tongue, from the leftovers.

Further and further, it continued sweeping from side to side, leaving a trail of sticky silk, behind. Side to side, up and down, not flinching at defensive bites that steadily grew weaker from the venom numbing their jaw.

There was so much fear it threatened to make the monster drunk on the mindless terror and pain. Tears welling up in those tired eyes nearly had him reach to dig into tender skin and flesh and- but instinct clamped down, hard, on his usual prey drive, and Anti's chitters grew louder as his smaller fangs frothed venom in his saliva, so that he could pause, pressing multiple kisses to his coffee bean's brow, eyelids, breathing in that salty scent of fresh tears and fear, before moving on to that jaw, again, working it slack with oddly tender nuzzles.

"You can sleep, if you prefer, Irwin." The only offer her gave, and his voice barely shaved the farthest edges of human, when he did. He was already pulling back, making sure to fill that already salivating mouth with sticky strands, leaving the airway and throat clear.

His belt hit the floor, soon followed by the jeans, idly kicked off. The house began to thrum with sound as Anti pulled them closer to his Matrix, to avoid another possible predator finding them.

Anti wasn't particularly worried about keeping covered, when tormenting his Puppets, so the poor kid had likely seen it before, whether those were the memories the Professor ate or not was beyond him. Perhaps he was as much a voyeur as Dark.

Thinking about the other creature had him gripping Irwin's chin, tighter, without realizing it. He eased up, so he would not tear into their throat, by accident.

The phallus that was visible, now, looked normal, at first glance, except that the vein running underneath bulged enough to reveal it forked around something. A secondary slit, drooling a clear liquid, ran along the underside of the head. It didn't take long for this wrong looking thing to swell to the size of an average dick, so close to Irwin's face.

There was silk slowly covering the inside of their mouth, and it tasted like clean linen and nightmares, organics and something wholly foreign that Irwin could not identify. Uselessly, their tongue fought against the forming covering of silk, and they reflexively swallowed the saliva gathering in their mouth.

Anti's multitude of little kisses over their face left little damp spots of saliva and smudges all over their glasses. That same venom that had laxed their jaw started slowly working on their eyelids too, making them marginally heavier with every passing moment. Sleep? How the  _ fuck _ could they sleep through this? They'd gladly take it if it meant they wouldn't be conscious for this process.

There was... noise, and that was the best Irwin could do to describe the sound that filled their ears and vibrated the silk in their mouth , and it tickled in a very unpleasant way. They coughed reflexively, like it would help remove the silk in some way.

Irwin made the mistake of looking at Anti's dick, and they had an awful moment of deja vu. Oh god, this was happening, this was really happening and there was no way of escaping it. They made panicked little noises in the back of their throat, the terror smothering any snarky comments they would've had. 

It didn't make sense, why Anti would cover their mouth in silk if he was just gonna stick his dick in their mouth. How would this turn them into a 'spiderling', or whatever he called it? They... weren't sure if they wanted to know the answer. The Professor always said that to be ignorant was to be a fool, and at this moment, Irwin didn't really care about not being a fool. The less he knew about what was happening the better, honestly.

"That's it, Starbucks. Just breathe. Such a good little bean." Careful not to break their glasses, the monster ran the curved back of a claw across a freckled cheek, down, over the loose muscles of the jaw, and up and down the arch of Irwin's throat. His pedipalps were already unfolding, draping over the scared thing's shoulders to steady their body. Their arms he let drape in their lap, for comfort. This would take a while.

And then those half lidded eyes widened, reflexively, in self induced panic, looking back at what was going to happen. The half croaked noises had Anti instantly crouching down to grasp both sides of Irwin's head in his claws, a look like a hungry, possessive  _ pride _ burning in those black eyes of his, as a secondary pair opened just beneath them. "You're already doing so well, Irwin. Even terrified you're more angry than broken." Now some of the spare spider limbs were wrapping around their middle, in an alien concept of...well, a hug. 

Standing, Anti slid his hands under his little bean's jaw, tilting it back up as he moved.   
The dribbled silk along their chin had become good and tacky, a sign that it was time to begin. "Don't worry, I'll help you," he continued to murmur at those fear drunk eyes, as he once more took hold of Irwin's chin, dragging them, open mouthed, inexorably closer to the shaft he lifted to meet them.

The moment those lips passed over the phallic head, the pedipalps automatically pulled tight, driving it deep. The layer of sticky silk sealed his new Spiderling in place, just as long channels of rolling warmth churned to life inside Anti's abdominal cavity. Long and narrow, they bubbled with sticky, forming orbs, now sliding down to the ovipositor, below.

Because that's what the slit on the underside of the cock, was: the opening where the eggs slid out. And it was now pressed down Irwin's tightly constricting throat.

Anti could already see strain marks along the human's jawline, just from the regular girth of a shaft pushed past their mouth. That would be an issue. Already the ovipositor channel was swelling to make way for the eggs.

Shifting so he was more astride the human, standing over them, he calmly told them to breathe through their nose, just as the first rolling bulge came into view.

Anti kept touching them, but it was all so damnably gentle, even those weird not-legs at Anti's hips that laid on his shoulders.  For some god-forsaken reason it was actually  _ helping _ to ground them, steady their nerves a little. They blamed it on the weight of the damn things.

Then Anti was cupping their face, and his expression was...  _ intense _ , for lack of a better phrase. He called them  _ angry _ and oh,  _ there _ was some of the steel that had disappeared.  _ Damn fucking right they were pissed, _ they thought, and- oh goddammit, Anti's weird-ass encouragement was actually  _ helping _ . Was it possible to make yourself scared out of spite?

The answer was a definite maybe, Irwin decided as Anti pulled their face closer to Anti's cock. Their nose was full of a sharp-edged musk, as the head went into their mouth, and then suddenly they were choking, oh god, they couldn't  _ breathe _ , their jaw forced so so wide around Anti's girth, and they could almost taste it past the silk. Their arms went up to- to do  _ something _ , but were stopped partway by a pull at their wrists, not nearly high enough to do anything about the situation, and they clutched at Anti's hairy knees. They tried to pull their head away, but those half-legs kept their shoulders in place, and the silk pulled at the skin of their mouth, keeping them in place like super glue.

Tears started to roll down their face, oh god, they were going to die here, choking on Anti's weird dick, and they were helpless to stop it. Then Anti was shifting closer, and it tilted their head upwards, and just as Anti told them to breathe through their nose, Irwin realized they  _ could _ breathe like this, and they used their newfound breath to heave little sobs.

They could see up the line of Anti's body and see his face looking down at them, and their panicky brain, desperate to think about literally  _ anything else _ , compared Anti's expression and behavior to that of a sympathetic mother soothing their child through a procedure the child did not like whatsoever, and they did  _ not _ like the implications of that comparison, but they did not have mental resources required to analyse that right this second. 

They could also see bulges rolling down into Anti's dick. It was with a spike of raw horror that Irwin remembered:  _ spiders laid eggs _ .

Irwin sobbed through their nose with renewed vigor and their jaw strained as the first egg passed through their teeth, and they could  _ feel _ it exit the phallus down their throat, right into their esophagus. The squeeze cut off their breathing for a moment, and the egg felt huge in their throat. They felt it sink heavily into their stomach, and Anti's earlier offer to sleep suddenly had some terrifying implications. Would Irwin really be here that long on their knees? Kneeling long enough to fall asleep while eggs rolled down their throat? Their knees  _ already _ started hurt, they couldn't even fathom being in that position for that long.

Anti's voice kept glitching between that inhuman chitter and a rumbling croon, static slashing the syllables as he purred Irwin's name, hands now free to continue petting that riot of fuzz normally hidden under a hat. Predatory instincts were being muted, at least marginally, to be replaced with a protective desire that was even dulling his usual dread of long times without food. All those normal drives were fuzzy as that adorable floof of curls he was lacing his fingers through.

But, oh, did it feel  _ so good _ when he felt the pain and fear roiling upwards from that first egg squeezing against too tight jaws, tears forced free in its wake. He couldn't help the pleased noise that rattled his chest at that.

But that protective drive dug back to the fore, and as yet another golf ball sized slime rolled down, drawing another agonized sob from his little Starbucks, the large pair of chelicerae on his abdomen clicked open, dripping clear, greenish venom. 

"I know it hurts," he said, truthfully. "I can help." And, with that, the hooked fangs opened wide, scraping against each other, then along either side of Irwin's throat, to the base of the straining muscles where shoulder and neck met, before digging into the taut skin and flesh.

Venom, at first hot and searing at the injection site, then thick, cloying and numbing, began to pump in a vaguely repetitive rhythm, forcing the muscles in the human's neck looser than ever, until Anti had to support their head in his hands.

The throat no longer felt as tight around his shaft, the jaw muscle relaxed. This meant the flow of eggs could move faster. Now, anywhere from two to three per minute could slide down, slowly packing themselves into the mostly non distended stomach.

Acid resistant mucus worked to help glue the stringy eggs together, making for an ever growing mass inside the stretching organ. Empty, the adult human stomach could stretch to hold almost a gallon -60 "golf balls," give or take.

Still, with the squishy membranes of the eggs meant to be densely packed, he would be able to fit more than that. 

Still crooning, he idly plucked off the glasses, setting them by Irwin's phone. "You're doing  _ so well _ ."

Anti was noisy, all chitters and clicks and glitchy sounds, all of them somewhat grating on Irwin's ears. Their hair was being petted,  _ again _ , and it was at once both condescending and soothing. It was repetitive, something else for their brain to focus on.

Then before their eyes, Anti's abdomen just fuckin'-  _ opened _ , but it was a bloodless seam and it was shiny inside and Irwin had literally no idea what they were looking at until there was a sharp and burning stabbing sensation at the base of their neck, and they let out a loud shout around the flesh in their mouth at the pain. More tears leaked out of them, but the pain slowly faded and in its wake was just- numbness. 

It was growing difficult to support their own head, and it was making them dizzy, and then all at once they were no longer in control of their own neck and jaw, and Anti was holding their head for them. It was grounding, steadying, oddly soothing to just be held. It was easier to breathe like this, and the sensation of the eggs passing through their throat was minimal, but they could feel themselves growing slowly fuller.

The raw terror was slowly fading into despairing acceptance. This was really happening, huh? This was actually happening. As awful as it all was, Irwin counted themself lucky that they couldn't actually taste the eggs, nor did they have to swallow the eggs. They just slid right down, and they were playing the role of the helpless, pathetic victim. They were  _ always _ the victim of the Otherworldly, weren't they?

The kisses to their eyelids must've had some potent venom because Irwin's eyelids were growing heavier. The effect was amplified as their glasses went away and their vision went all fuzzy/blurry, and the instinctive no glasses = sleepy time mindset made itself known. Their arms plopped down into their lap again, hands curling loosely. Irwin let out a sad whine at Anti's compliment, and their eyes slid fully shut. No reason to keep your eyes open when you can't see anything important, right?

As time passed, more of the arching spider limbs curled around Irwin's kneeling form, save for two, which helped the monster keep balance, as his human legs remained rigid during the ordeal he put the bean through.

As they noticeably began to gentle in his grip, limbs and pedipalps shifted to make a multi limbed embrace for the exhausted thing, supporting and holding from all sides.

Feeling that broken little whine keen up their throat, around him, Anti sucked in a breath at both physical and mental sensation alike. One hand pulled away from petting Irwin to splay over his stomach.

For an instant lost in that whimper, he dug his palm into his middle, sliding down until just above the opening of his third set of jaws.

In the same moment his hips rolled forward, as he guided a number of eggs down at once. He was panting as his own energy mixed with that delicate despair Irwin's mind thrummed with to seed into all those eggs swelling their stomach to near capacity.

He moaned praise at his little thing, loosening the legs stroking that distended belly.

The eggs were slowly running out of room to roll into place, and were, instead, oozing into any nooks left. Eventually, they'd fill the organ entirely, painting the walls with a mucus that slowed acid production, and numbed the muscle, keeping it from contracting around the large, foreign body, so it would be harder to expel.

It would cut down on the pain, too, but Anti could live with that. Lost in that mix of hopelessness and almost defiance at their fate, Anti stared down at the freckled face in unholy pride.

There were so many legs touching Irwin, keeping their torso upright and in place. It felt like a cage in a way, and there were a couple of them rubbing at their stomach. They were getting so  _ full _ , to the point where each inhale caused a stretching discomfort if they inhaled too deeply. Their dress shirt was getting tight beneath their oversized sweater, and so they pulled the hem of both above their swelling abdomen with one hand. 

They could feel they curve of their abdomen, and it was just another reminder that this was really happening. The very thought made them slightly nauseous. Idly, they wondered if this was what pregnant women felt like, and a cruel corner of their brain reminded them that they  _ were _ , in fact, pregnant in a sense.

As if the universe had heard their thoughts, several eggs slid down their throat all at once, and they groaned weakly at the sensation that was like reverse vomiting.

Anti was making noise above them, but they didn't really register it as anything. Their eyes were heavy, and each shift of Anti's grip on their limp head fucked with their sense of balance. They were being held close, protected almost, and there were so many repetitive, soothing sensations that it lulled them into a half-asleep state where things seemed surreal. In that half-asleep state, some infantile corner of their mind likened the sensation of.... whatever the fuck was happening in their mouth to breast-feeding, and so Irwin began to weakly suckle at the length of flesh in their mouth. Or try to, at the very least. Their limbs were weak, and they were just a body. They just.... existed, and there was something comforting in that, even as their soul despaired.

Chittering softly as Irwin's mind finally reached the edge of panic, only to collapse into a drowsy state between sleep and waking, to avoid it, Anti slid the hand stroking their hair to cupping their cheek, thumb claw delicately stroking under their closed eye. He was bending partially over them, now, still glitching between a satisfied hum with each roll of his hips, to crooning praise in a growl of sound, to avoid waking the kneeling thing.

A huff of sound ran over glitching lips, until multiple faces were fracturing pleasantly at the sensation of lips still numb from venom and silk trying to curve over him. Looking down at the broken creature, so much like a kitten, nummying in its slumber, Anti's body shuddered on a high, the eggs coiling down Irwin's throat finally beginning to dwindle. There were still sections of numbing mucus to follow, to coat the throat and eventually ease into the intestines, slowing down the body's metabolism for the long rest it would need.

But it would take a few minutes more of standing, rolling into those suckling attempts with a building delight at being able to create a new, powerful force from this adorable thing, before the tackiness of the silk in Irwin's mouth would finally dry enough to allow the ovipositor to slide free of their jaw, the fangs gingerly pulling from the neck muscles.

Saliva, dried silk and clear mucus dribbled from the bean's lips, their jaw still slack from the paralytic. Gently but firmly closing their mouth, Anti placed more silk along the seam of the lips to help keep any possible gag attempts down. The eggs would soon be stuck together, but a few might still be loose, and this way, he could make sure as many stayed down, as possible. The more the merrier. 

His legs were straining from the rigid posture, and he knew that, by now, Irwin likely had sore knees. Even as Anti felt a second flow of warmth starting along the tubes leading to the ovipositor, he was gently scooping Irwin up, turning them around, back to his chest, as he cradled him in human and spider limbs alike. Turning, he fell into Irwin's vacated chair, just barely avoiding knocking their phone and glasses off the arm of the chair.

He'd forgotten those. Idly, he plucked them up in flexing arachnid legs, and set them on the coffee table. Finally, he resettled his pedipalps around Irwin's hips, settling them into his lap, leaning back to allow their spread legs, stilling bound in a kneeling position, room to be folded up and to the side. Gripping them in his claws, he started carefully stringing them up in this pose, before turning to mouth into Irwin’s ear, “You’re doing so well, Starbucks. I’m so proud of you. You’re almost halfway there.”

Once the legs were sufficiently out of the way, his claws released and moved to begin tearing into the back seam of their pants, to get those out of the way. Already the warmth building inside his body was becoming almost painfully hard to hold back, as his body readied to pump  _ uphill _ .

Irwin was roused to wakefulness as Anti withdrew his cock from their mouth and they coughed weakly, their throat raw. The coughing contributed to the nausea welling up, and the fangs pulling out was grossly unpleasant as well. As Anti sealed their mouth shut, there were a couple weak attempts at retching; not out of any conscious desire to expel the eggs, but just their body adjusting to the sensation. They made a weak, pathetic noise of general uncomfy-ness, which grew a little louder as Anti picked them up and fell backwards, their head falling onto Anti's shoulder.

The jostling made them dizzy, what with Irwin's lack of control over their head and neck. There was the distinctive click of their glasses on a hard surface, and Irwin was grateful they were out of the way. Then Anti was fussing with their legs, pulling them up and separating them, and confused fear grew inside them. Weren't they done? Their stomach was achingly full, an ache that felt suppressed by the venom, their eyes pulled heavily shut and mouth full of silk, wasn't that enough? At least their knees would be given a break.

Irwin was proved wrong as Anti whispered "almost halfway" to them and they were  _ so confused _ , right up until Anti was tearing the seat of their jeans open, exposing their ass to the air, and then they were terrified again.

They were about to be violated in the worst way, and they tried to fight it, but their legs were useless, they couldn't open their eyes or move their head, and so in a panic they wriggled the best they could on Anti's lap, their hands going to Anti's wrists and trying to shove those invading hands away from themself. They made noises of protest through their wrecked throat, and they had to cough some when their vocal chords aggravated the roughness.

Panic filled them as their terrified mind analyzed the situation, their body trying to fight off Anti. It was going to hurt like hell, they didn't expect Anti to stretch them or give them any lube for the process, they'd never had sex like that, how bad was it going to hurt? And then- oh god, would Anti purposefully try to stimulate their prostate, adding insult to injury? They internally cursed the dick in their jeans; if they'd only had female sex characteristics, they wouldn't even have to worry about this kind of thing. This couldn't possibly get  _ any _ worse, Irwin despaired to themself.

The jostling motions of Irwin's struggle had Anti hissing through a rush of fear from their rattled thoughts, and the physical grinding against his still freed cock.

He bucked instinctively, one set of claws digging into the arm of the chair, the other reaching up to grip Irwin's hair, tighter than he'd meant.

Around them the room shivered, faintly, as if echoing Irwin's panic along the webbing that kept phasing, briefly, into sight.

"You need to hold still, Irwin," Anti managed to stutter through the static, though he wanted them to do anything but, just then. Releasing their hair and tearing free of the chair arm, he firmly gripped their hips, flexing the two legs that bound their arms, dragging them above their head.

Finagling it so that their head was cupped in the crook of his shoulder, arms kept away from blocking their nasal breathing, Anti sighed, contentedly.

"It's good that you're still able to fight. You're so much stronger than people believe, Irwin. I knew you'd do well." Every ounce of lazy pride in that voice was genuine and devouring. 

Shifting their body up his chest, he leaned back, as far as he could, to give them both some ease during the next, long increment.

"Keep fighting. Keep struggling. You'll do so well, I promise.  _ Look at you _ ."

And then he was lifting them, with arachnid limbs, reaching one hand down to grip the phallus and aim the head to right where the split of the jeans revealed.

"Just hold on, Starbucks. You can do it." He hissed just as he began to slide into almost cringingly tight flesh, ovipositor already swelling, again.

Irwin stilled at the harsh grip in their hair, panting through their nose from the exertion. They began to weep quietly at their own helplessness. This was gonna happen, and they couldn't stop it. For all the favor they'd won from the Otherworldly, it seemed none of the bastards even gave enough a fuck about them to save them from this fate. Did Anti count as an Otherworldly? It would make sense if he was; the Otherworldly tended to not get involved in the affairs of their kin.

Irwin felt desperately alone. It made them feel so small and irrelevant to know that the Professor wouldn't know they were in trouble, wouldn't get there in time to save them, and none of things they'd been used as bait to summon would save them either. 

They'd been abandoned, and only the monster that cradled them now even gave a damn. 

Anti seemed to... actually,  _ genuinely _ care, in some twisted way. He must, if he saw some kind of value in them, value enough to turn them into some kind of wicked creature, and Irwin had no idea how to feel about that.

They didn't really have the time to figure it out either, because suddenly there was pain in their nether regions, so much pain. It hurt so bad that all they could do was cry at the burning stretch. It felt like Anti's cock was splitting them in half, and the small corner of their brain that could process literally anything else reminded them that they had to relax, tensing up would only make it hurt worse. They tried to relax, they really did, but it was just so hard to do so as Anti pressed ever deeper inside them, splitting them ever further open.

They wouldn't be surprised if there was blood. There had to be, with the way it felt.

The only lubrication was the leftover egg mucus and Irwin's own saliva. It allowed the slow sinking through that tight tube of muscles, hot and constricting around him as Anti went.

Pain. He was nearly drunk on the shifting need for it and to comfort. "Such a good little bean..." He wasn't quite all there in his hissed praise, just rapidly plucking the webbing in the human's mind, transferring a sense of happiness at their struggle, a feeling of pride and joy and an echo of Anti's own contentment at the entire thing. All of this was pouring into the crying thing's mind, as Anti's hips began to pump upwards, driving a new load of eggs into their body.

Holding them close, Anti moved slowly, but steadily, building up speed as he plundered a body already tested by pain.

Warmth pooled and bubbled in his middle, a faster moving amount of eggs, bursting uphill instead of trickling down. Muscles contracted with each thrust, shoving the load deeper into the twisting cavities of the intestinal tract. 

More mucus coated the walls, working on slowing metabolism for the long sleep, ahead. 

The slow but relentless movement was beginning to near the body's natural reaction centers, brushing just against the prostate before several more eggs pumped upwards.

For some inexplicable reason, Irwin was suddenly  _ happy _ with the proceedings, even as they cried at the pain. It took them a minute to pin down all the inappropriate emotions, and once they did, they were still confused as to why they were experiencing them. It was hard for them to be analytical, though, or even try and fend off the positive emotions as the flow of eggs and the movements caused some... _ interesting _ sensations. 

The rolling sensations of the eggs in their gut was too bizarre for words, and they idly wondered how far their large intestine could stretch, and if it was possible for the eggs to go up into their small intestine. There was also the thrusting, which was gently jostling them, and Irwin really did not want to think about the sensations  _ that _ was causing.

In fact, the steady thrusting started to brush up against their prostate, causing sparks of pleasure to cut through the pain. The pain itself had peaked, and now it was slowly diminishing, but not slowly enough. Was it possible for them to ask Anti to do the trick he did on their neck to their asshole? 'Cause they definitely were  _ not _ high enough to deal with all the agony.

Irwin was torn between wanting to stay in the pain and letting the flood of positive emotions sweep them away. To stay in the pain and let spite ground them in the reality of the situation, or let all those good feelings protect them against it.

The answer ended up being 'both'. They existed in the pain, and they existed in the pleasure and the sweet emotions. They were tired. They were exhausted and they just wanted to pass out again.

Except their gradually filling abdomen was putting pressure on their bladder, making them aware of the need to pee. They tried to hold it, and hold it they did until the pressure of the eggs on their bladder was stronger than their muscles and warm urine spread over their thighs and groin and butt. Irwin whined at the shame of wetting like a toddler, and they turned their face into Anti's neck as if trying to hide from it.

When you tortured and humiliated people as your modus operandi, on a daily basis, you stopped caring too much about wetting. It was probably one of the most common fear reactions Anti had dealt with, anyway. 

But when the little freckled nose was being pressed into the side of his throat, just under the cartilaginous hinge of his throat jaw, Anti did something far different than his usual reaction of using the shame to help break the food.

He reached one hand up, away from Irwin's hip, before the wet stain could soak into their pants, and curved soothing claws around the back of their skull, tilting his head to the side, over theirs.

"Almost done, Irwin. Then you can sleep," he purred, as he rubbed a bearded jaw along their forehead. "I believe in you."

Even as the pressure began to ease along the base of the ovipositor, Anti's spider legs were dragging silken threads gently across the human's body, creating a supportive structure to keep them from getting crushed inside the net by their own weight.

Instead, this sticky silk layer was springy and strong, a slightly greenish hue, and thrummed with exhaustion and sleep. Calling so softly to just relax and let go and cease all struggles. It wouldn't hurt as much, wouldn't be as terrifying.

And Anti could work to feed his little, gestating baby much more easily.

"I'm going to glut you on nightmares, Starbucks. And when I'm done, you will be able to do so much more. Even for those Old Gods of yours, if you want." He didn't sound impressed, but still, sacrifices seem to be common, so there'd be some ways to get good meals.

"Just hold on, Irwin. I won't let you go. I promise."

Irwin was almost too worn out to be relieved that it was almost over with. They cracked their eyes open, watching the silk accumulate for a moment before closing their eyes again. The pain was basically gone now, which they were grateful for, but it meant they'd also been sporting a half chub in the remainder of their pants for the last who knew how long.

On some level they felt ashamed about being turned on by the thrusting, but they were just too tired to care. Too tired to feel shame, too tired to really acknowledge the pleasure, too tired to parse Anti's nonsense about nightmares, too tired to do more than just exist. 

Anti's touch was gentle and soothing, comforting and satisfying to their touch-starved soul. They relaxed into Anti's hold and longed for sleep, kept awake only by the discomfort of their distended belly, the thrusting of Anti's cock, and the quiet noises Anti made into their ear.

Silk crisscrossed, layer by springy layer, each single strand delicate, each layered one steadily stronger, until it was like a cotton fiber with all the strength of steel. 

Anti's hips continued to jerk much longer, this time, as fewer eggs were able to be moved at once, and had to be thrust upwards with each buck. There were positions that could speed this up, but this at least let them both sit.

Anti's voice trailed off into vague clicks and sparks as the sun set, rays slanting across what floor was visible through the haze of the dimensional rift between web and world. By the time Irwin had a protective layer of springy silk over their entire front, pressing them into a near fetal position, but for their head still pillowed against Anti's neck, the moon had risen.

It was slow, cumbersome, and tiring, and Anti still couldn't help the exuberance that rattled his shell into glitches as he cradled the quietly whimpering creature closer.

He was feeling drowsy, but his eyes remained glued on the careful weaving of the egg sack, silently measuring and adding needed give to each line like an incredibly intricate Cat's Cradle.

Finally, the heated pressure sliding down his body began to ease, as the silk looked little different than a thick blanket, now, with a murky, green-black shimmer at just the right angle.

Briefly, his hips jerked faster, as the last, tacky load of eggs and mucus slid as far as they could manage. He finally lifted Irwin free as more sticky silk dragged up and over to keep anything from draining before the eggs could glue to each other, fully. 

And then he was hoisting the nearly limp body up to finish wrapping the silk cocoon around them. Hands and limbs flashed to gently scoop the human into a small ball, gently petting that hair one last time before their face disappeared under more and more layers.

Much to Irwin's surprise, they'd actually fallen asleep at some point and now it was nighttime. Thing that had woken them up was Anti removing himself from them, and they made a sleepy noise of protest at the discomfort. They were warm and comfortable, still in the clothes they'd worn that day (they hadn't even gotten a chance to take their shoes off!), pressed beneath some kind of.... blanket? They cracked open their eyes and saw that they were positively covered in Anti's silk. It was pretty, in a way.

Irwin decided they were too tired to process this turn of events, and instead decided to do a status update on themself. Their stomach had swollen significantly, based on where their legs pressed into their abdomen, but strangely it didn't hurt at all. They just felt comfortably full, like they'd had a large meal. They shifted their limbs, trying to stretch, and found that the silk was kinda stretchy, but firm, keeping them in a fetal position with their arms crossed over their chest. They were comfy and tired, so they closed their eyes again.

Irwin must've dozed off because when they stirred again, there were light touches across their face. It took them a moment to understand what was happening, but once they realized their face was being covered in silk, they made little panicked noises in their throat, scared they were going to suffocate inside the little ball of silk that had felt so comfortable moments ago. They pressed weakly against the thick layers of silk containing them, like it would help somehow.

Consciousness flickering along the spiderweb of synapses sparking in their tired brain, Irwin was shifting in his grip, notes and sparks of panic lighting along the connected strands of thought woven into their mind.

By this point, a large, Irwin sized ball of fuzz was being held aloft in his limbs, being gently turned to secure the non sticky, but much thicker strands that would hold it, safely, in place. 

A vague lump formed where hands shoved into the wall of their cocoon, and Anti lowered the silk orb to hold it, close, for a moment, propping it back in his lap.

Legs still dragging stands of silk, and claws dripping with it, both wrapped around the sphere, making soothing noises and rubbing where Irwin's head would be.

The silk was thick, but, oddly, allowed enough light to filter in that it was more the murk of stepping into a dark room from a lit hallway. As Anti's body blocked out more light, it grew dimmer, softer, the silk inside made to be soft and warm and clingy. Irwin wouldn't be able to move, much, with their gut distended, but as time went on, it was made in such a way to cradle them, no matter which way they turned.

"It's time to sleep, Irwin. Don't worry, I have your glasses." His voice would be muffled at best, a vibration through all those silken strands, but Anti could just as easily pour his voice into the strands he sunk into human minds as eardrums, and be heard and felt far more directly, that way.

_ "Just sleep, Starbucks. I'll be here." _

The silk was surprisingly breathable, and Irwin's fear eased. It was dim inside all that soft, clingy silk, and it was no different than snuggling underneath a heavy blanket, or perhaps lying on a hammock. beneath a blanket. They could vaguely sense that they were being held, and Anti's voice was muffled, encouraging them to sleep. They didn't really understand  _ why _ they had to be wrapped up in silk, past the whole spiders/egg-laying thing, but honestly it was better than the alternatives. Hey, they got to sleep for a while _ and _ be comfy while they waited out whatever the hell was happening with the eggs in their gut.

So Irwin slept.

They drifted in and out of wakefulness over an indeterminate period of time, though they spent it more asleep than awake. There wasn't a whole lot to do in a silk bag after all. They had dreams, too, lots of weird ones. Sometimes they were hurting people, people whose faces they didn't know and they were very matter-of-fact about it, and those dreams were somewhat distressing when they drifted into waking again, but they didn't really bother Irwin all that much. 

The majority of their dreams however, just conveyed a sense of warm and safety, and Anti was there, but he just wanted them safe and protected and close and well-fed. Irwin dreamed that Anti's claws were only ever delicate and carding gently through their hair and just antiantiantianti _ mother _ .

They were warm and safe and nothing hurt, except when their body felt weird and foreign, so they'd just fall back asleep again. Just sleep it off, sleep it off like you would a fever, they told themself. They were cozy and comfortable as they shifted, letting the silk hold them against gravity, and they were filled with a bone-deep sense of satiation, like a need they didn't even know they had was being filled. They were close and cradled, full and well-fed, and they waited for their brain to slip out of tiredness in the warm embrace of sleep.

While Irwin slept, Anti remained fiercely alert, jet eyes blazing like chips of night in the thrumming, vibration filled section of the Matrix he'd brought his spiderling to. He was oddly silent, save for murmured soothing whenever the egg sack shifted, in its woven nest.

Two major flat portions of web were connected, one over the other, by beam like structural supports of silk, sandwiching Irwin in between. Two spider legs curved around the egg sac at all times, morning, noon, and night, as the sleepless monster brooded over its young.

He'd left most of his clothes back in Irwin's home, save for the black t shirt he commonly wore, which he'd idly shredded as he secured Irwin in their place. This allowed all of his eyes their wary, violent vigilance.

Had any of the other egos been capable of stumbling in, during this, the retribution would likely have been fatal. Anti hadn't fed in the entire week he'd been guarding Irwin, his instinct to feed on torture dampened considerably under his desire to guard his young.

Any and all things were a threat, and they would be dealt with, with brutal efficiency.

While Anti went hungry, he made certain that his child did not. Puppets so long drunk on venom and silk that they were easily shunted into an almost coma like state, dreaming for days on end, were strung up above, unmoving but for when an idle spider limb jabbed into their side, adding doses of more nutritious physical pain to the mix he poured into the developing form of his little Starbucks.

Sensitive hairs inside his pedipalps kept stock of the greater amounts of movement, inside the egg sack, day after day, as the eggs slowly absorbed into Irwin's body.

Rarely, he felt something chitinous scraping back, as if wanting reassurance that he was there. He never moved, gently petting the surface of the silk sphere back until it eased into lassitude, again.

As time went on, Anti started reaching for nightmares from his less broken victims, snaring their fear across the webbing, hauling it down to give more vibrant taste to Irwin's gestation. It was the difference between baby food and an appetizer sampler. Some spicy, some savory, some sweet, all filling to make up for the amount of energy lost in growing out their new form. A number of the dreams were even from the next planned Spiderling, Irene. Trapped in a web as hordes of tiny spiders coated her limbs, as claws reached down for her eyes, to leave her alone and unable to see what would happen. Bone deep arachnophobia was always so intensely flavourful.

He was steadily building up a level of strength to aid in tearing free from the egg sack, and the gentle prick of spiked limbs began a slow unraveling to help Irwin, as well.

Anti waited, day after day, and watched.   



	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Irwin struggles to cope with having many new appendages.

Irwin woke up, and they were wide awake. They blinked in the dimness of the cocoon and took stock of themself. Their body felt.... odd, like they'd over-exerted themself the day before and now their body was recovering from it after a long sleep. Their back was kinda sore too, like a neck or back muscle had been strained, and now there were soft little spider limbs curling around the outside of their arms. They shifted and the spider legs twitched, and there was a couple minutes of confused, contained flailing before Irwin realized that the spider legs were theirs.

Irwin calmed down upon the realization, and a feeling they couldn't pinpoint squirmed in their chest. Oh. So that's what Anti meant. They idly scratched at their mouth, which was itchy from the dried silk, and to their surprise it came off easily but it seemed their nails were sharp?? They looked at their hands and yep, they'd grown claws in the time they'd been asleep. How long had they slept anyway, that they'd grown so many new features??

With a slight jolt, they realized they could remove the silk that had bound their legs into a kneeling position, and they made quick work of it. They then began to work on removing the silk from inside their mouth. After a few moments and some quiet "bleh" noises, they'd removed the silk, and just swallowed down the silk they couldn't claw at, hoping it was digestible.

Speaking of swallowing, their throat felt weird, too. It was.... tight? Irwin tried clearing their throat, but it couldn't dislodge the strange feeling. Maybe they could ask Anti about it. Irwin settled a hand over their stomach. It had certainly gone down in the time they'd been asleep. It felt weird, too, in a way similar to their throat. Ugh, it was going to be a nightmare dealing with all this.

Now that they'd been awake for a bit, they stretched their limbs as best they could, pressing against the inside of the cocoon and making a noise as they felt a new set of fangs (!!!!) twitch inside their mouth. Carefully, they poked at the fangs, and jerked their hand back at the sharpness. Huh. Well. That would certainly take some getting used to. 

There was something different about the cocoon, too, but they couldn't pinpoint what it was. Had Anti moved them to a different room? Whatever it was, they were aware of some kind of... vibrations along the inner surface of the cocoon. It was almost as if they could "feel" strings or ropes of some kind extending out from the cocoon. The best way the could describe it is that they could sense there was more about their surroundings. Or something, it was weird.

Irwin sighed. The cocoon was starting to feel cramped, and they wanted out. Would their claws work on the silk of the cocoon too? Shifting so that gravity was pulling below their back, they clumsily began clawing at the "roof" of the cocoon.

The hairs along the inside edges of the pedipalps alerted the waiting spider abomination that there was far more movement inside the egg sack than before.

His fangs chittered, excitedly, as Anti tilted his head, listening intently. After a moment he could hear faint sounds, almost like the hair being cut, or in this case, shredded.

His legs shifted from their widespread pose of crouching over the cocoon, until creaking chitin pried him free of his near death grip on the sphere. Instead, he pressed the warped strands of the Matrix until the reverberating web was replaced with a more solid room. The floor of one of the offices at his work gave the little sack flat ground to work off of, and let Anti hover above on spindly legs to help claw the outside, where he heard the noise coming from, not unlike a bird helping a chick break through its shell.

All the while he was glitching with excitement, claws flickering in and out of sight, digging into the fuzzy ball with slow, purposeful strokes, even as they sparked and flexed on every echo.

He was giddy, violently so, but his movements were slow and sure, meant only to help the little Spiderling escape its cocoon. Hunger flashed in those sharklike, depthless eyes, but was quickly brushed away as he cooed and chittered at the hole slowly forming in the top of the ball.

Torn scraps of silk were falling to the floor of the empty room, and even in his excitement the monster would pause to sense if anyone was near. This was a mostly unused portion of the building, unless he needed an influx of workers, so each time he was rewarded by silence.

"Come on, Irwin. You can do it." Black claws continued to scrape the outside of the silken orb.

Gradually, the light grew brighter from the hole Irwin was scraping away at. Their spider legs flexed and scratched at the inner surface of the cocoon too, as if trying to help them weaken the sphere. There were scratching noises coming from the outside of the sphere, too, and for a moment Irwin paused, afraid of a predator, before some sixth sense told them it was just  mom Anti on the outside, helping them escape too.

Anti was making encouraging noises outside, and some baser instinct guided Irwin to keep clawing towards it  towards mother, he'll keep you safe . They had to pause for a minute, panting; escaping from a cocoon was hard work, man! During their brief rest to catch their breath, they noticed the atmosphere was quieter, and there was less, for lack of a better phrase. Had Anti moved them again? They hadn't felt any movement, but now there was solid ground beneath them, which was encouraging in a way. Instinctively, they chittered back.

Irwin started up their scratching and clawing again, taking breaks every so often, until they'd finally made a tiny hole in the surface of the cocoon. The scent of dust and disuse filtered through and they waited to get used to it before using their human legs to try and tear the hole open. They worked slowly on the hole they'd opened, worried about accidentally blinding themself or overwhelming themself with too many sensations after so long asleep. This cocoon was _ really _ sturdy, just how long was this going to take anyway?

Eventually, the hole abruptly tore open wide, and they flopped back onto the ground, whining and chittering at the bright light.

At the first sign of a little, charcoal grey claw finally piercing the outer layers of the silk ball, Anti stopped digging, to avoid hurting the still soft-shelled bab inside. Instead, he continued chittering encouragement, settling his still glitching fingers along the sides of the orb to help steady it.

Wriggling bulges slid under the casing, causing more and more dried silk to snap at each clawing, kicking motion. Every few moments, the motions would stop, and Anti would take back over slashing to let Irwin catch their breath. Once he heard the light chitters and scrapes start back up, he'd receed, again.

It took some time, repeating this, back and forth, before Anti's dark eyes caught a glimpse of a freckled nose and squinting eyes, followed by the bottom of a sneaker as Irwin kicked at the hole they'd created.

At first the silk stretched with the kick, still a bit stringy, but soon older, drier strands began snapping like guitar cords, loosening the weave. Sure, now, that they could do it on their own, Anti subsided to letting them finish fighting, praising their efforts as they did.

Weaknesses and strained silk finally began to reveal more and more stretched holes, woven bands tearing or being clawed away, until the proud mother suddenly was looming over his freed Spiderling, chittering at how splendidly they'd managed.

Irwin just kinda laid there, waiting for their senses to adjust as Anti praised them for doing so well and blinking up at his thrilled, smiling face. Their vision was awfully weird, too. There was- there was more  _ depth _ to it, for lack of a better phrase. The inner portion of their field of vision (which seemed wider somehow???) was as it normally was, colorful and blurry, but the outer portion was clearer and less... saturated? It was kind like looking through a smudged set of glasses.

Irwin decided to inspect this strange phenomenon with their hands, and clumsily brought one up to rub a knuckle against an eye, only to accidentally brush against their cheek, which was actually an eye??? There were eyes set into their cheeks??? And one was squinting closed, watering at being poked accidentally?? Carefully, Irwin brought their hands up to their forehead manually shut their inner(??) eyes. Yep, that was- that was definitely a second set of eyes they were blinking. This set had better vision than the ones they normally saw out of.

They dropped their hands to either side of their head and practiced blinking with all their eyes, getting used to the sensation. They were sort of able to blink each set individually, but they couldn't wink any of the new eyes. Oh well. There was something nice about being able to blink their eyes in kind of a ripple, though.

Slowly, they sat up, and the air was cool against their skin. They started looking around the room, and they could see that they were in some kind of office? Where even were they? Oh, Anti was completely naked, how had they not noticed that before? That- okay fine, they'd just-they'd deal with that, it was fine.

Irwin scratched idly at their arm, and they suddenly felt gross in their own clothes. God, how long had they been wearing these clothes? With shaky fingers, they untied their shoes and pulled them off, and did the same with their socks. Next was their pants, but their limbs were too shaky and weak with disuse to stand up. They laid their legs out and with some difficulty, they were able to shimmy their ripped jeans and underwear off. They panted from the exertion, and they became aware of their hunger growing slowly. Man, they could go for a good steak after this.

The sweater was next, and Irwin started to pull it up over their head, only to be stopped short by the spider legs they'd somehow forgotten they possessed. They made a noise at the discomfort, and after a few failed attempts to wrangle it off, they huffed in frustration and tried to just claw it off, but the cotton felt  _ wrong _ against their claws, and they whined, pressing the flats of their claws against the skin of their thighs to rid themself of the sensation. Their breath started to quicken as they became uncomfortably aware of the cloth constricting their spider legs at the base, and they felt tears prick at all four of their eyes.

They looked up Anti. "Help me," they said, frustrated upset coloring their voice.

Anti tilted his head on a croon at the soft little thing tumbling to the floor and blinking up with sleepy black eyes. The croon ended on a chitter at the adorable flop of tangled curls that fell into Irwin's face as they inspected their new ocular set.

Luckily, their claws hadn't hardened too much, to actually gain the minute serrations that gave them their lacerating ability, though that should only take another hour or so, with how dark they were getting.

Instinct screamed to cradle the breakable thing, close, and keep it safe, but Anti had to know if they could still move on their own. So he forced himself to be patient.

Instead, he watched his little babe shed the filthy clothes, fastidious and stubborn, getting free of the pants even without having the strength to stand.

It was only when he saw Irwin try to tug at their sweater, the material of which was tangled around a set of delicate and pale spider limbs, that he hissed a warning to stop. Those legs were very brittle, right now, with the chitin still soft as a rubber glove.

When their still soft claws elicited a whine at trying to tear the cotton, Anti skittered forward, legs arching over them both as he swung down in a hovering crouch in front of his offspring. The plea had him gathering the newborn Spiderling into his arms, right off the floor, to gently shred the rest of the sweater with his much sharper claws, shushing gently.

Strips and snags of cotton fell away until their skin was freed to the open air. Holding them close, Anti nuzzled into their hair. "You did so well. I'm so  _ proud _ of you, Starbucks. Let's get you cleaned up." Idly, he stroked a thumb along the arch of Irwin's throat, chittering pleasantly at the sensation of cartilage just underneath.

Irwin pressed their head against Anti's chest, the swift movement making them dizzy for a moment. They calmed beneath Anti's gentle noises, and some corner of themself was happy to be pressed so tenderly against  mother him.

Their spider legs flexed gently, mindful of Anti's warning, and Irwin waited patiently as he carefully freed them from the restrictive clothing. "I liked that sweater," they mumbled sadly as they watched it fall to the floor in pieces. 

The cool air had been nice, but now they were getting cold and so they shivered, pressing closer to Anti's bared skin for warmth. "That sounds nice," they said in response to Anti's comment about getting cleaned up.  Their voice was quiet, so as to not strain their throat after so much time spent quiet. "Can I get some food afterwards? I think I could eat a whole pizza, maybe two."

The odd feeling in their throat seemed to be somewhat placated by the sensation of Anti's thumb pressed against it, and so they shifted further into the digit. It felt nice to be pressed so close to another body, skin to skin with no sexual connotation. On one hand, they were wary of what Anti had planned for them, but Anti very obviously sincerely cared for them, and they were worn out from trying to fight him all the time. He  _ had _ kept them safe while they transformed, hadn't he? Maybe it wouldn't hurt to just.... let him take care of them.

"I'll make you another one," Anti promised, muscles taut and hungry around his nuzzling Bab. He was so hungry, and his body screamed for sleep and sustenance, but there was still more to do to help his little Irwin through their birthday.

Once certain the legs were free, he gently stroked the smooth backs of his claws along the soft chitin armour. Squishy and pale, it was slowly gaining a blush of colour the longer they flexed in open air.

Like a leg when the knee is struck jerking, the legs flexed rapidly in response to his touch. Good. The ligaments were strong. Nothing had been broken in their rest.

"And yes. I'll get you plenty of food, don't worry. No pizza, though. Too hard on the stomach. Wait a day." It was the most he'd said aloud in days, and his voice sounded disused, hissing like a damaged mixtape. It took a moment for his rumbling bass to return under the glitching static. "Let's clean up, first." Gladly, he tucked his chin down on their head, continuing to gently rub the flexible structure in their throat as spider limbs wrapped carefully around their body to keep them from falling.

Moving his fingers from the new leggies, he carded them through the curly mess of hair a couple of times, walking on bare, human feet out of the room, spider leg deftly opening the door to allow passage.

Down the hall he strode, all angles and claws, guarding his young, as he neared some employee showers. Tilting Irwin's face further into his chest, protectively, he flicked on the lights, and hauled over a plastic chair he'd made sure to leave there, tucking it in the simple, walk in, shower.

Reluctantly, he released his little Starbucks, setting them in the chair, their back to him. 

Tossing the last shreds of his own shirt on the floor, outside, he drew up close enough that the back of Irwin's head leaned against his front, so it wouldn't make them dizzy. Turning on the water, he chittered as he tested it on his arm, waiting for the temperature to be safe. At the same time he eased the spray to keep it from damaging the unhardened chitin.

"Ok, no pizza. That makes sense," Irwin said. They chittered happily at the touches to their head.

Once Anti began walking, Irwin shut their eyes against the dizzying gait. Fortunately, this allowed them to not be blinded when Anti flicked the light on, but they whined a little at the light filtering through their eyelids anyway. The hand protectively curling over their skull made them feel a certain way, something soft they weren't sure how to parse, but before they could, Anti was setting them down on a chair, the plastic cool against their skin.

They shivered a little as they opened their eyes just in time to see Anti pull the handheld shower head from it's slot and fuss with the settings. They leaned carefully against the back of the chair, making sure the back of it was low enough that it didn't bump into their spider legs. Feeling Anti's stomach behind their head, they leaned fully into him, sighing tiredly. 

They rested one hand on the edge of the seat of the armless chair, brushing against the outside of their hip and it felt weirdly fuzzy, moreso than usual, and something twitched  _ out _ from their hips and legs. They squeaked at the sensation. Looking down, they saw that they had those fuzzy little half-legs that Anti had, only smaller and dare they say,  _ cuter _ . "What the fuck," they whispered to themself. Then they were reminded that Anti had two extra mouths, and realized with a creeping dread that those weird sensations they'd been experiencing were exactly where Anti had those mouths.

But the thing was, there was skin still covering those places on Irwin. Now that they were out of the egg sack, how exactly were those extra mouths supposed to open?

There were stray warm droplets of water hitting their skin, and Irwin was torn between a human prey instinct and the parts of them that  wanted to chitter happily at  mama's Anti's presence.

Anti continued chittering, a lower, monotonous hum of sound, like the drone of cicadas, but less piercing. It resembled the purr of a mother cat, in response to the noises of her kittens, or a bat chattering to find its young in the dark. A noise of reassurance.  _ I'm right here _ , it said, even as he began to spray the water into Irwin's hair, letting it sift through curls, plastering them to their head, over both shoulders, back and forth, to warm them, and over their front.

At the sight of the pedipalps moving, the reassuring chitter shifted to one of happiness, as Anti's own pedipalps reached forward to pet Irwin's sides, gently.

Reaching up for a plastic tube of body wash, Anti squirted some on Irwin's shoulders, slowly rubbing it along their neck another dab on their chest, and finally, holding it out a bit, over their groin area.

"Hands, Irwin." Anti chirped.

The chittering was soothing, smothering the frightened human aspects of them, and they chittered back contentedly. They closed their eyes at the warm water, sighing at the pleasantness. They already started to feel cleaner, even with just the gentle spray of water falling over them. Logically, Irwin knew they should be scared or frightened on some level, but they just weren't. They just Knew™ somehow that they had absolutely nothing to fear, and to be perfectly honest, they didn't have it in them to keep fighting. They were just too worn out.

Maybe some food and a good nap would sort them out. The water was making them sleepy again.

The smell of body wash hit their nose and they chittered happily. At Anti's request, they held out their hands obediently, making an inquisitive noise.

Pouring some of the body wash into their cupped hands, Anti purred, "To get what I can't reach," in explanation, before hooking the shower head back above, where most of the gentle spray fell on Irwin. Adding more soap to his own hands, Anti began rubbing shoulders and spine, around to the throat and chest, even playfully rubbing behind an ear to tease the little thing. As he worked he dug his fingers into the muscles to help blood flow begin easing higher, more potent and able to help wake the body up from the hibernation style stupor it would be locked in.

They'd still, likely, be sleepy, but at least it would be hours at a time, rather than days, if they did pass out.

Chittering a soft, but firm, command, Anti gripped their shoulder to steady them, bending them forward to let him slowly scrub their back, over the sensitive little base of the coxa, which merged into their human skin enough that the base had a few freckles. The trocantors were some of the first joints to harden, to keep from cracking under the weight of the legs, so they were already darkening from a translucent cream, all the way to a deep black, as the exoskeleton hardened.

Anti used the tips of his fingers to ease around the base of each leg, making sure they attached securely, without any fractures or twists, and cleaned sweat and leftover silk and cotton strands from joints and grooves with slow precision.

Suds dribbled down Irwin's back as his voice warped along the echoes of the bathroom, "You did so well. You're going to be such a strong little thing, Starbucks. A force in your own right." He was giddy on hormones, and he knew it, but all he could do was trill in pride over the little, twitching legs, the fuzzy pedipalps, and those soft, hungry eyes he could see, vaguely reflected in the tile, ahead.

Once he was done with their back, he pulled Irwin back against his front, pedipalps wrapping back around their middle automatically, like a spidery hug. Now he started on the chest, digging his palm into the skin as he worked to dislodge dirt and-

There. He felt the first dead skin husk brush off one of the four abdominal eyes, and bent over Irwin to help reveal the rest. He chuckled, joking, "Your visual acuity is based off movement, here, and bright colours. You're a T-Rex."

Carefully, Irwin shifted all the body wash into one hand, holding the body wash out of the spray of water. They started with their genitals, widening their legs so that they could get at everything. As they sudsed up their thighs, both front and back of them, a chittering giggle bubbled out of their throat at Anti's teasing. The deep massaging of their muscles felt  _ really _ nice, and they made soft, happy noises at it.

Though their arms were weak, they attempted to rub into the muscles of their legs, mimicking Anti's actions on their upper body. Irwin bent forward at the instruction, and rubbed the body wash over their calves and feet, paying special attention to the joints and toes, where dead skin tended to accumulate. They shivered at the delicate touches to the sensitive skin of their back, spider legs twitching as a mental map of their new anatomy started to form.

A force in their own right, huh? The idea sounded more appealing than they wanted to admit. To be able to make all the Otherworldly think twice about violently using their body to manifest in the physical realm? Now  _ that _ was a nice thought.

They sat back up when it was time, and patted at the pedipalps around their middle, feeling kind of like a little kid, Then Anti was scrubbing at their chest and it was fine until abruptly their field of vision changed drastically, and they made a noise of surprise. 

"Why the fuck do I have so many eyes?!" they hissed, and they felt their voice skip a little, for lack of a better phrase. "This is too many eyes!" They hunched over a little to better see the eyes being revealed, and they could see their own face upside down, looking at themselves without looking into a mirror. They couldn't keep those eyes open long though, not with the spray of water. Also it was really disorienting to see two different ways at once, so maybe it was better to just keep those abdominal eyes closed.

"Because you are a spider," Anti hummed, matter-of-factly, still rubbing at the abdomen, briskly feeling along the ridges just under the skin.

Anti crouched, lower, nuzzling into Irwin's neck as they examined their new eyes. He made a soft  _ chirrup _ sound into the soft skin of their throat, one hand pulling away from scrubbing their stomach to gently curving around that tight throat, rubbing up and down in a soothing fashion.

"Think of them just like your old eyes," he murmured into soapy hairs at the nape of the neck, splaying his right hand across Irwin's lower abdomen. "Think of closing them, and only them, like you're winking. Same with the secondary set." His voice clipped on each s like a broken record. 

Irwin was a logical bean. He gave them time to think this through and try it out, while he explained, "Your main set will still need glasses -I need them for reading, even. They will, on the other hand, have excellent night vision after a while. You'll create lenses each night that are shed by day. Be sure to wash your face, each morning, or you'll blind yourself looking at a bright light if the lense hasn't fallen out." More chitters and trills played in his jaws as he nuzzled deeper into Irwin's neck, watching through lidded eyes their first moments and crooning.

Irwin leaned back into Anti a little, taking in the information. They'd just barely gotten used to functioning as bait for eldritch monstrosities, and now they had to learn to function as a spider monster? This was almost too much.

For a minute they sat quietly, practicing opening and closing each set of eyes. "Lenses at night, wash face. Got it," Irwin said, blinking all eight eyes in a ripple from top to bottom. It was weird, but they could get used to it. "It'll be good to not have to stumble around in the dark anymore."

After a few moments of chittering quietly, they spoke up again. "When do I get my phone back?"

Anti chuckled at the question, still intent on Irwin's throat and lower stomach. "When you are dry enough not to be electrocuted. Please tell me you don't shower with it in the bathroom, with you?" There was a worried note of disapproval, much like when Irwin had once told him they'd eaten nearly week old pizza, after picking the moldy bits out of the crust. How did college students  _ survive _ ?

His scrubbing was purposeful. He was wanting to make sure everything had grown in, properly, under the skin layer. That no fat pockets or blood vessels had grown incorrectly.

After a moment, to his delight, something shifted, slightly, under the skin of Irwin's abdomen. Chittering excitedly, Anti, pulled back from their neck, splayed hand gently scritching over a barely moving pair of lumps.

Making certain the water was still safely warm, so as not to burn fresh tissue, Anti swiveled his claws over the movement, at the same moment gripping Irwin's neck to keep them still.

"Pshh, of course not," Irwin said with humor in their voice. "I mean like, how long has it been? How long have I been asleep? I just wanna make sure my friends know I haven't died."

But then Anti was grabbing their throat, holding them still and they gasped as Anti moved his hand quickly over their lower abdomen. One hand shot up to grab at the wrist holding his neck, dark grey claws pricking slightly at the skin, and the other clutched at the seat of the plastic chair. Oh god, this was it, this was the part where Anti killed them, spiders ate their young, right?? But that wouldn't make sense, why would he go through so much trouble only to eat them?

"What are you doing?" they asked anxiously, seeing and feeling slight movement beneath the skin, which they now noticed was discolored, like a bad sunburn. "You're not gonna eat me, are you?" They could hear their own voice glitch just a little, canting unnaturally high-pitched in fear.

Their legs braced against the chair legs, mentally preparing for the worst while their spider legs twitched erratically, reflecting their fear.

_ "Shhh..." _ The shush rattled over chittering fangs, less soothing than he'd hoped, but it was hard to contain his rising excitement as he examined the discoloured flesh, critically. On the one hand, it would eventually slough off, on its own, and teething chelicerae would likely help in that endeavor, by tearing through it while they slept. But that meant the fangs would remain soft, longer, and drops of venom could pool in the skin membrane, damaging tissue. 

"I'm not going to eat you, Starbucks." Another light trill as he tucked his chin over their shoulder, forking his fingers so that he pinned the mandibular jaws in place, stretching the skin tight. One of his sharpened spider limbs arched forward, settling over the spot.

"I'm making certain  _ you _ can eat." Then, while Irwin was concentrating on the spike pricking the skin of his abdomen, Anti snicked a claw into the skin of their throat, dragging it across to let the second set of jaws flex wide for the first time. Only then did the spike pierce the dead skin over the chelicerae, tearing it open.

Some blood flowed, but not much. Anti was immediately sliding around to examine the two holes, chittering encouragement and petting at the frightened thing's skin as a pair of glinting fangs flared at him in defense pose at his "attack." 

Gently he rubbed the claws that gripped his wrist. "Such a good Starbucks. You did it. You  _ did it. _ "

Irwin yelped at the sensation of pulling, tearing skin, but it didn't hurt, or maybe it didn't hurt  _ yet _ . They made panicked noises on every exhale of breath, freaking out over the sensation of another mouth opening wide on their  _ neck _ . Anti was making soothing noises at them, and he suddenly came around to their front, and at the base of their skull there was a spike of  _ defendprepareitsathreatdontletitgetclose _ , and they watched and  _ felt _ those chelicerae open wide on their abdomen.

Limbs shaking badly, Irwin brought a hand up to touch their neck, and felt ragged skin, little sharp spikes along the opening, and a damp space where there  _ absolutely should not be space _ . There was still little pain, and a tongue(???) squirmed in their throat/chest, and they jerked their hand away from their neck.

Anti's calm presence and steady hands were the only things keeping them from falling into a full-blown panic attack, and they inhaled a jagged breath, feeling like they were on the verge of crying. They brought their free hand half-way to their stomach where those big fangs flexed, but stopped short, afraid of what they'd feel.

But there was only a little blood, and there had only been some minor discomfort, and it was over now, Anti was even telling them so. At least, it was  _ supposed _ to be over, right? God, they hoped so.

Even as his bab became a living ball of spiky bits, flailing legs, claws and extra jaws working overtime to look scary and defend themself, Anti was scooping them out of the chair and swiveling around to sit, instead, cradling Irwin, tightly, to his chest.

Fangs and claws scraped at his skin, as he cooed at how vicious they were. It was impossible not to. They were adorable, and small.

One arm under both knees, the other wrapped up their spine, cradling their head, Anti chittered and clicked as he nuzzled a calming line down the side of that still flexing throat, feeling the jaws try to resettle, properly. 

Pedipalps stroked and soothed as a cage of limbs came down to guard the shaking thing. The water poured down as Anti murmured, _ "Such a good job. I knew you could do it." _ Deep, rumbling pride laced every word, and the monster began to rock, back and forth, waiting for his spiderling to calm.

Irwin fought the position change at first, instinctively, and they scratched weakly at Anti's skin, but then they were being cradled and the pressure against their body was grounding. They could see in their peripheral vision that cage of long long spindly limbs, and there were so many soothing, patting motions along their skin and that was- that was fine.

Gradually, the panic started to fade, but there was still just  _ so much _ happening with their body and it was all just so overwhelming that they buried their face in the crook of Anti's shoulder and started to cry. Eventually though, they stopped crying, and all the too much in their body had settled. They sat limply in Anti's hold, letting him soothe them.

They sniffled, and the water cascading gently over them was still warm. "It's too much," they mumbled into Anti's skin. "It's too much and I can't- I can't. I can't do it."

Anti's skin was soft beneath their face, and they had a strange desire to bite down, to gently nibble at the flesh. They restrained themself, and simply nuzzled at him.

Anti didn't shush them, this time, letting them get it out of their system, like a wound bleeding clean. Instead, once Irwin had begun nuzzling into his neck, he carefully exchanged the arm holding up their legs with a pair of spider limbs, pushing aside wet hair to clear their face.

Easing to his feet, toes digging into more of that gritted tile to keep from tumbling to the floor, Anti finally shut off the water and hauled his wet load out and over to the towel cabinets.

Pulling a towel out, one-handed, he clumsily wrapped it around Irwin. It was harder when he couldn't pull them away, so he ended up making more of a blanket or papoose out of it, than a proper towel.

Two legs hooked another, jerking it around his hips, unceremoniously. The rest of him kept dripping onto the carpeted hall as he passed back through the door, walking until he reached the elevator.

Two floors up and the air smelled sharp and freshly cleaned, less dusty. The doors here were farther apart and solid wood, giving more privacy to anyone who had to sleep at work.

Wet feet leaving tracks in the dark green carpet, he carried Irwin further down the cheerfully lit hall. This area didn't look or feel like a pharmaceutical company, at all. Maybe even more like a very plain hotel.

It also echoed with the dreams and nightmares of its occupants. A good place to nest a Spiderling.

Almost idly, as he walked, Anti let his claws recede, reaching his free right hand up to wriggle a knuckle between Irwin's lips in much the same way you might trigger a kitten to suckle a bottle.

"Don't worry," he repeated, finally stopping at a simple, wooden door. "I'll bring you something to eat after you've slept a bit more. It's not even quite seven in the morning, yet, so the cafeteria isn't open." The moment he'd set foot back in his building, so clogged with his webbing that minds and bodies and walls and furniture all felt like an extension of his every footfall, Anti had known the time and mood and number of people still awake.

The webbing was so useful. Once Irwin learned how to use it, they'd be much safer, and much stronger.

Irwin was chilly when the water stopped flowing, until Anti draped a towel over them. They clutched at the towel with one hand, the other coming up to grip the shoulder opposite the one they were resting their head on. They were still a little cold, but it was better like this, even though their skin tickled from the dripping water.

As Anti started walking out of the shower room, Irwin closed all but two of their eyes, the ones they'd had before all this mess started, but even those were halfway shut. They could almost fall asleep just like this, cradled in Anti's hold.

When they exited the elevator, Irwin immediately noticed the difference. It smelled travelled and clean, and there was something about the air that reminded them of the dreams they had while they were asleep. Warm. Comfortable. Well-fed. Sleepy.

They automatically opened their mouth to the gentle press of Anti's knuckle, and some instinct had them turning their head so that their shiny new fangs could nibble gently at the offered flesh.

Ah, sleep first then. They could get behind that. They were practically falling asleep as it was, and so they made a sleepy noise of acknowledgement in their throat.

Most of the doors in the building had handles, rather than doorknobs. As a fuzzy spike flicked the latch, pulling the door ahead open, it became apparent, why.

Legs shifting and folding to fit through the door, Anti left the lights off. The sun was just barely lighting up the closed curtains of the floor to ceiling window, directly across from the door. The carpet, in here, was plush and thick, the kind to tangle in your toes but not quite manage the title of shag. The bed was large, with a thick comforter and a surprising amount of pillows, good for figuring out how to comfortably support soft leggies.

Grudgingly, Anti set his coffee bean down, on the end of the bed, patting them dry with the towel without even thinking about it. 

There was a TV mounted on the wall, in between a bathroom with a small tub and shower, and a wardrobe. Keeping a leg wrapped around Irwin's waist as he did so, Anti opened the doors and dragged out a few of the clothes he'd had Chase bring from Irwin's apartment. Nothing really seemed to match, but there were pajama pants and a loose shirt, which would do, to keep from crushing the legs.

Grabbing a pair of underwear, he turned back and brought everything over. "Come on. Get dressed before you sleep. I don't want you, sick." Shaking out the undies, he held them open in an offer to help.

The bed was really fucking comfortable, and it almost made up for the loss of something to chew on. Without thinking about it, Irwin brought their own knuckle up to their mouth to gnaw on it gently. They distractedly looked around the room while Anti dried them off, marvelling at the softness of the comforter.

They startled slightly when Anti prompted them to get dressed. Irwin withdrew their knuckle from their mouth and blinked at the underwear, uncertain if their legs would hold them long enough to stand while stepping into the underwear. Better not to take any chances though.

One at a time, Irwin lifted a leg and put it through the appropriate hole. They then leaned forward to grip at Anti's shoulders for support, and stood up slowly, legs shaking. Once Anti had pulled up the underwear, they sat back down again. Yeah, nope, their legs definitely weren't up to par yet. They frowned a little. How had they lost so much strength in their muscles?

"Anti," they began, "how long have I been asleep?"

Busily making certain his soft shelled thing didn't fall over, Anti didn't answer, at first, instead opting to pick up the pajama bottoms and roll up the legs, directing Irwin to just lift their feet enough that he could slide them on.

Hefting the Spiderling to their feet, he repeated the same movement they'd done with putting on the underwear. Peering at the still darkening legs, Anti laid aside the shirt, for now, deciding for a more sturdy way to keep his young warm, that would support the strengthening coxa. 

Under the sleepily suspicious glare of a tired Irwin, Anti scooped the tired thing up, under the arms, nearly leaving them dangling as his legs hooked ahold of the comforter, pulling it up and tucking Irwin in it, leaving their arms free, wrapping it around them like a burrito.   
Or a cocoon.

Propping them up on the pillows, Anti pointed to the nightstand, next to the bed. "Your phone, a charger, your glasses and some generic aspirin are in there." Walking to the side of the bed, to get back in reach, Anti smoothed back that floof. "You've only been gestating a week, Starbucks."

Irwin let Anti manhandle them (or was it spider-handle now?) into a comfy position, and oh wow this comforter was nice. They looked over at where Anti pointed out their belongings, and decided they were too tired to try and squirm all the way over there.

"A week?" they repeated, feeling something cold coil in the pit of their stomach. That was a  _ really _ long time to be asleep, and that "only" concerned them. "Well, that's one way to catch up on lost sleep," they said, lacking anything else to say. They yawned wide, feeling new muscles flex in their jaw.

Irwin spent a couple minutes squirming into a more comfortable position, and when they found the right nook in the pillows, they sighed breathily, eyes faling half-closed. They fussed with the blanket around their torso, trying to see if they'd be able to squeeze their arms in if their arms got cold.

Anti only smiled at the muttered statement, continuing to stroke Irwin's hair as they wriggled about, stretching.

A yawn revealed tiny, clicking fangs under their tongue, and Anti chittered, instinctively, watching them for a bit before getting an idea. Walking back over to the wardrobe, he hissed under his breath, searching, until he pulled out both a beanie and the scarf he'd made them.

Plopping that beanie, comically, atop their head, Anti then sat on the edge of the bed, swinging his towel wrapped legs up onto it, scooching back, and wrapping one arm behind Irwin's head.

Dropping the scarf in their lap, he nuzzled the Bean's neck, feeling the secondary jaws try to nip, and said, "Happy birthday, Irwin. Get some rest, and I'll get you food when you wake up."

"My birthday is in November, dumbass," Irwin mumbled before closing their eyes and settling in to sleep. They tugged the beanie further onto their head, grabbed the scarf, and snuggled into Anti's side. With their spidery instincts satiated, they fell asleep within minutes.

As Irwin's breathing leveled, a knife sharp jab of pain seemed to stab into his intestines with all the casual mercilessness of the snooze alarm going off.  Anti nuzzled into Irwin's beanied head, slid his arm free, and walked his naked ass, quietly, out into the hall, the towel hanging off his elbow.   
  
To a room four doors down, pulling out a venom hazed woman (Diana? Laura?), and a man he didn't even try to remember, tugging them along, until he reached the elevator.   
  
They were already drawing knives from their pockets as the doors closed, Anti's legs caging around. He hadn't eaten in a week, and he was very near starving. These two had such a good constitution, these days. They'd last him long enough to have his literal break-the-fast.   
  
Maybe one would survive the next few days.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i should've mentioned this last chapter but i forgot: in case you guys are having difficulty imagining the complex spooder anatomy, [here's a drawing](https://cgbk10.tumblr.com/post/174920881782/have-a-spideranti-this-is-based-off-of-the-idea) a friend of ours drew of anti! it might also be a good idea to have a chart of spider anatomy on hand lmao
> 
> don't hesitate to ask questions if you're confused about something!

Irwin awoke some time later, with their bladder and bowels complaining to be emptied, and Anti was nowhere to be seen. It took them a bit to work their way out from the comforter, and they crawled on top of the bed over to the nightstand. Irwin put their glasses on, and out of curiosity pressed the power button on their phone.

No response. It seemed the battery had died. Oh well, they'd plug it in after they went to the bathroom. They took off their hat and then stood up carefully, testing their legs. It seemed they'd gained some strength while they'd slept, and on only slightly unsteady legs they made their way to the bathroom.

After an unexpectedly long time on the toilet, they were done and washed their hands as the toilet flushed. After drying their hands, they decided to look in the mirror.

The first thing they noticed was that their once-blue eyes were now entirely black from corner to corner. The eyes set into their cheeks blinked slowly at them, and their slowly darkening legs flexed idly. This was really happening, huh? Damn, they even looked kinda like Anti too, what with all the... _addendums_ . Why them? Of all the people in the world, why had Anti picked them? They sighed, and then noticed their hair was an _absolute mess_.

Irwin started opening drawers, looking for a comb. "No, no, no... aha!" It was a relatively small comb, but it would serve its purpose. They sat down on the toilet and started working a week's work of knots and tangles out of their hair. Their eyes teared up a few times, but after about 30 minutes, the comb stopped catching, so they stood up to finish combing their hair in the mirror.

Ah, much better.

They were feeling kind of achy though, so Irwin went back into the bedroom to plug in their phone to charge and swallow an aspirin dry.

Since the battery was dead, maybe it would do them some good to take a short walk and stretch their legs or something. Heck, if they were lucky, it would be after working hours and they'd be able to do some exploring! They stood up, stretching out all their limbs, and then walked out of the bedroom.

The hallway was brightly lit, and they stood there for a minute, waiting for their eyes to adjust as they squinted at their surroundings. Once their eyes adjusted, they started exploring the floor they were on. The dark green carpet was soft beneath their feet, and they had to periodically stop to rest.

Eventually they encountered a stairwell and went down a floor. They had to stop and sit down on the stairs once they reached the next door. Had they really lost enough stamina that going _down_ stairs winded them? Ugh, getting their strength back would be a bitch and a half.

Once they'd caught their breath again, they stood up and carefully went through the door. A nearby analog clock proclaimed that it was almost five pm, which would mean they'd slept for almost eleven hours. Impressive, honestly.

It also meant that they'd be able to explore with relative ease, and maybe find Anti to get some food. They padded quietly down the hall, one hand against the wall for support in case they fell. After a couple turns down hallways, they noticed a man standing some distance away from them, looking at something on the wall. He was wearing a doctor's coat, glasses, pale blue scrubs, and a hat-thingy from under which green hair peeked. He certainly _looked_ like Anti, but he looked awfully normal. They knew that Anti was able to hide his non-human features, so maybe it _was_ him.

Irwin observed the man for a few moments longer. Even if it wasn't Anti, this man certainly looked enough like the spider monster that he'd probably be able to help Irwin find Anti.

"Anti?" they called out hesitantly. "Is that you?"

Schneep was giving the OSHA bylaws a sardonic little perusal as he shrugged his coat off his shoulders and folded it, sleeve to sleeve, to drape it over his arm.

He jumped at the sound of Antisepticeye's name, eyes shifting all over in search of the named man. When a demon with a penchant for bitching about circles did not appear, he cast blue eyes back towards…

_"Mein Gott."_

The man's startled response told Irwin that this definitely _wasn't_ Anti, just someone that looked like him. Had Anti mentioned any clones or brothers? They couldn't remember.

The man was definitely startled, almost frightened, his eyes wide as he just _stared_ at them. For a moment they'd forgotten they looked like a monster, and Irwin's legs curled about their torso self-consciously, holding their forearms over their abdomen. It was a reasonable reaction for the other man; they'd nearly spooked themselves when they saw themself in the mirror earlier after all.

"Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," they said, a little quieter, lilted to sound more non-threatening. "My name's Irwin, I don't think we've met before. You... _look_ a lot like Anti ~~mo҉m̨҉~~ but... I dunno. Do you know where I can find him? He promised me food earlier."

It was a child, well, a young man, but it was also very much a thing out of Henrik's nightmares. Enough that he wondered if he'd fallen asleep in his office and Anti were feeding off him.

He'd found one that could survive. Oh God. Oh please, no…

He was staring, eyes wide and lips parted, at eight tiny limbs, four black eyes, and little curved claws. More eyes peeped uncertainly back from the abdomen, as if shy.

Their voice echoed that same static, at one point splitting completely into two words. Mom. They called Anti...mom.

He couldn't help the wary expression he gave, rubbing at his arm. "Vhat kind of food?"

The man was definitely very terrified, they could practically taste it in the air. It very nearly vibrated... _something_ at the edges of their senses, like it was within reach, but they couldn't understand it and so there at the edges of their mind it remained.

Irwin also very much didn't like being stared at in horror, so they endeavored to make themselves smaller. They wished they'd thought to try and put on a shirt when they left, because they were getting cold, goosebumps appearing over their skin. They rubbed their arms, trying to alleviate the cold.

"I dunno, a sandwich or something?" they mumbled. "I'm not sure what kind of food you're supposed to have after sleeping for a week, but I'm hungry enough to eat, like, three pizzas."

It was so fragile looking, subconsciously rubbing its arms and shrinking in on itself, legs curving around them in a fuzzier mess than Anti's.

Schneep wished he had anything on him. A pen, one of his scalpels, something to shove in that horrific, black, cold...childlike eye... He swallowed, feeling something vicelike and cold grip him at the image of a hurt child.

But it wasn't a child. It was a monster. It was...cold, and hungry, and scared.

He wasn't sure why he felt that, and so strongly, but the images of his own children were bleeding into his mind, almost superimposed over the one before him. The same arm rubbing, _"Vati, I'm cold."_ The same light whine in the voice, tired and hungry and just wanting to be held, _"Vati, please come home, in time for dinner?"_

He was already taking a step closer, eyes a little glazed, hands moving up as if to hold the thing, when he stopped at its statement, again. A week? It had been hibernating?

It was so small and cute and helpless. But, he knew, Anti could pretend to be delicate to lure prey. What could...his spawn...do?

He wondered again, what it truly ate. Like the rest of the deeply entrenched Puppets, he could feel what Anti was doing to his _snack_ on getting back from... Wherever he'd been…

...for a week.

The sensation was of echoed pain, like a scream at a great distance, but it also warped until the desire to _join_ grew stronger, and Schneep knew, from experience, to ignore that, to not think about it, as the more you did, the more likely Anti noticed you, and sent a _personal_ invitation. Then you would know _exactly_ what they were feeling.

A week, and he'd returned with this. A week, and now another spider existed.

Schneep awoke from his thoughts somewhat shocked to find he'd crouched down in front of the college age monster, as if waiting for those claws to reach for him. Shaking his head to clear it, he muttered, "Zhe staff cafeteria is still open. Ve can get you some gut food."

Irwin just blinked as the other man approached them slowly, like a puppet on strings. As the man knelt, the same spidery instincts that told them to snuggle up against Anti also told them _lơ̕o̶͝k̶̛̕ i͝t̨̢'̧̡ş ̕҉a̵͏̷ ̛͢t̷͢o̕ys̴n͜a̕͢͡ck̷̡͢,̶̢̢ ̕͝m̸͢a͠y̸b̶̴e͘҉͢ ̢p̨̛l̢̡a̡̕y̵ņi͟͏b͜͡b̴̧͘l̶̵e̵ ̸a̛͠ ͟l͢it͟tl͟͞e̷?_ But the thought scared them, Irwin wasn't a cannibal! What the hell did that even mean? Something pressed at the very edges of their understanding, just out of reach, and Irwin was afraid of what it could mean.

"Oh, cool," they said mildly at the man's statement. "But. I'm not wearing shoes. Or a shirt. And... I'm not sure I wanna risk other people seeing me like this." The thought of other people that weren't Anti and didn't also look like him made them uncomfortable in a way they couldn't articulate, and they shifted from foot to foot. "Also, I dunno how far away the cafeteria is, but I'm not sure I have the strength to go all that way just yet."

Their voice was doing the staticky thing, and they'd been trying to ignore how weird it felt, but they could no longer do so. They tried clearing their throat again, to no avail. Irwin rubbed at approximately where their vocal chords would be, only to brush up against that second set of jaws and the damp line it created on their throat. They jerked their hand away from it and tried to discreetly wipe their hand on their pajama pants.

"I could bring you sometheeng?" The words were out of his mouth before he became aware of forming them. A darker line of reasoning pondered if poisoning it's food would end the strange creature, but that reasoning started something uncomfortably bleak boiling in his stomach. Even just thinking it made him much more inclined to hold the worried thing until it had calmed down.

It was such a small thing…

Swallowing as he finally forced himself to stand, rubbing at the side of his head, dizzily, Henrik felt his tongue rattle instinctively while his brain worked to catch up.

"If you are tired, you need zhe bedrest until you are deemed fit for zhe traveling. Dr. Schneeplestein vill see to your supper, for now, and contact Anti as vell, to let him know you are avake and about." And safe. Yes... that's what he wanted... right?

He... He wanted to make sure the child was safe, yes... That cloudy feeling felt stronger the more worried those little black eyes, looked. He would keep him safe, and then he'd be happy, yes.

"I am Dr. Henrik Von Schneeplestein. Vhat is your name, boy?"

"Oh, thanks, I really appreciate that." Irwin gave him a small closed-mouth smile. Their posture opened up a little bit, their spider legs relaxing slightly from their curled up position around their torso.

They frowned in confusion at the question about their name. Hadn't they already told the doctor their name? But there was something else that needed to be addressed before they answered the question.

"Um, I'm a 'they', not a 'he', please. My name is Irwin. It's nice to meet you, Doctor Schneeplestein," they said, tripping over the name only a little bit.

On the plus side, the doctor didn't seem to be too terribly out of sorts. They felt safe with him, safe enough to want to snuggle into his front for warmth and cuddles.  But the doctor didn't seem receptive to that kind of contact, so they smothered the urge.

"Oh, yes, sorry Irvin. I vill be sure to use zhe right pronouns for you." That glassy-eyed look back on his features, the man reached out and patted the top of the fluffy beanie on Irwin's head, before asking, "Vhere did you come from, _Schnucki?_ You don't look as if you can valk zhat far." Oddly, the longer he was near the little thing, the less terrifying it looked. It was very fluffy, after all.

Like a bunny. With too many legs.

His brain kept tripping over that, only to haze back over at the sad little expression it -they- had.

"And do you need a hug?" Why was he asking that?

They were very fuzzy, look at their cute hat...

Irwin resisted the urge to roll their eyes at the pet name. What was with these people and their desire to give them cutesy nicknames? "I was one floor up, in a bedroom. It wasn't _really_ that far, but still kinda far for someone who should be resting, haha. I only wandered off cus I was waiting for my phone to charge."

The doctor looked dazed again, and it was honestly getting concerning. Then the doctor asked if they wanted a hug, and just as Irwin wondered if he could read minds, they suddenly realized what was happening with awful clarity. Their mind flashed back to all the times Anti had mentioned puppets and oh god, this poor man was one of Anti's puppets, wasn't he? And Anti had given them the ability to manipulate the puppets _too_.

They felt sick. They hadn't even been doing it consciously, but they'd been _manipulating_ him. They didn't want to be like Anti. They'd _sworn_ to themself that they'd _never_ be like Anti and yet. And fucking _yet_.

They needed to nip this in the bud.

"I'm- I would certainly _like_ one but, you don't have to do that if you don't want to," they said taking a step back. Their voice was glitching a little more too, fuck. "Actually, you probably shouldn't be around me too much. I'm- I- I-" Irwin huffed in frustration as they tripped over their words, and they looked off to the side. "I _r̵̵͝e҉f̧us͘͝e̢͟_ to be like him," they said vehemently.

"Have you had any vater, yet?" Glassy eyed, or not, the man certainly sounded strict, when he wanted. His voice was clipt and direct.

But the fuzzy thing was upset, more so, now, than before. Henrik frowned at their words, and the phrasing used. _You don't have to, if you don't want to,_ directly after they'd explained they wanted one. As if there was something as foreign as choice, involved.

No, instead, as anger flashed in four eyes as soft as a shark's soul, the green haired doctor was already finding himself striding forward to wrap his arms around their thinner frame, hands careful to avoid the base of the spider legs.

His left hand moved to try to tuck the beanied head beneath his chin, standing on his toes for a bit of added height.

"You are small and safe and _gut_ " he assured him in a voice that attempted to sound soothing, but managed dreamlike and surreal far better. "I have an idea for zhe traveling, fuzzy zhing. Vill that make you happy?"

Irwin continued to frown, even as their arms and spider legs came up to wrap gently around Schneep. They pressed their face into the doctor's scrubs,  frustration making their throat tight. He was being soft and soothing and cuddly and holding them, which was exactly what they wanted, but at what cost? They wanted to insist, wanted to make a point about free will and all that, but what were they even trying to convince him of? On one hand, he certainly _seemed_ like he was sincerely offering comfort of his own free will, but on the other hand, something told them that wasn't entirely the case.

God fucking damn it. Why did things always turn out like this? Why could things never go their way? They had the power to no longer be used, but they didn't even fucking want it. They didn't want it. Not like this. Never like this.

They sniffled, trying not to cry. "No, I haven't had any water yet," they managed to get out past the knot in their throat, the glitching becoming more pronounced. They inhaled shakily for their next sentence. "What's your idea?"

The glitching noise only seemed to cement Henrik's grip on the sniffling child. He even rocked a little, limbs awkward as someone unused to hugging always managed, as they realized they suddenly had elbows to deal with. But he didn't let go, even as part of his mind remembered how close he was pulling fangs and a sharp throat jaw closer to his fragile skin. If anything, the image of sharp teeth and claws sinking into him had a strangely calming effect, on his brain, suddenly. As if he would finally be helping, doing something good.

And the limbs wrapping around his shoulders only seemed to add to that feeling, until he almost felt pride at the possibility of feeding this little thing.

"Here," he finally said, reluctantly pulling back, not enough to untangle from the legs, but enough to hand over his coat. "You can vear zhis, to be warm and hide. And if you can follow me to the elevator, I can get a vheely chair cart."

Irwin let their arms drop as Schneep pulled back, and took the offered coat. They were painfully aware of the fact that their unspoken desires were somehow influencing this poor doctor's actions, and tried not to want anything at all, despite the uselessness of the task.

"Okay," they mumbled, "I can do that." They sniffled once more, and then spent an embarrassingly long time trying to figure out how to consciously use their spider legs to just curl around their ribs. They finally managed to get the coat over both arms, and immediately started to feel better. It had weight to it, and it was still warm from the doctor's body heat. Irwin fumbled with one of the buttons for a minute before finally managing to get it fastened, to mostly hide their spider legs. Maybe it would just look like a weird spine support thingy to other people.

"I'm ready," they told the doctor quietly.

When the legs pulled away, Henrik made a sad noise in his throat, feeling as if he hadn't done enough. They were still upset, they were on the verge of _crying,_ what had he done? _Failure._ He'd fix it. He was the good doctor. He could fix it…

Taking one of Irwin's arms without asking, Henrik carefully avoided the wriggling lump under the coat as he wrapped his other arm over their shoulder. "Zhis is to make sure you don't fall. See? Ve vill retrieve a vheely chair cart, and then some _gut_ food for zhe fuzzy zhing." He papped the top of his head, again, smiling past foggy eyes, before resecuring Irwin's shoulder.

"Zhere is another elevatah around zhis corner, and when we get down, to the basement floor, zhere vill be a long hallway. Can you manage zhat, Irvin?"

He was babbling, like he did to most patients, whether they were knocked out, or conscious. But it was also as simple as making certain they knew how much farther they still had, in case they were too shaky to go. Henrik had the strongest image of just settling down, holding the tired thing, until he was found. Maybe he could do that if they got tired. He doubted he was strong enough to carry them, safely.

Something familiar and sharp was pricking along his thoughts, searching, until it turned almost violently back on him as he said the little one's name. There was a wary rage at his earlier thoughts, but just as fast it bled away under a thicker weaving of that hazy calm that made his blue eyes almost white.

Henrik made a cheerful sound, something almost alien to him, as he smiled, brightly, at Irwin. "Anti vill be meeting us, too." Why did that make him want to scream when it obviously was supposed to be good? He'd keep the fuzzy one safe. That's what was important.

Irwin leaned into the doctor's side a little, feeling somewhat soothed by the weight of another's touch. They looked at his glazed over eyes, and it seemed to them that there was no way they could put another person under his influence so easily like that. Maybe there had been something else set up that was programmed to respond to their spidery nature, and Irwin's subconscious was simply plucking clumsily at it.

So it wasn't all their fault then. It was just something that was part of them now. It made them feel better to know that they weren't actively doing it,   that it was a part of them that had forcefully been implanted in them that was doing, something that was all Anti. They wanted to learn how to stop doing it, but they knew next to nothing about their own physical abilities, let alone their mental ones.

Oh well. At least it was something that was helping them for now, and it wasn't hurting anyone.

"I think I can manage that," Irwin said after a couple moments. Their legs were starting to get kinda shaky though. If they sat down in the elevator, they weren't sure if they'd be able to stand again. "Depends on your definition of long though." They chittered softly at the mention of Anti. He'd be able to sort this mess out.

"Everything vill be alright, Irvin," Schneep assured, contrary to his every instinct. Nothing ever went well, here. Nothing ever tore free from this web of misery. Why was he wanting to spew lying comfort, now?

But the weight of the slighter form, the slight squeezing pressure of their fingers as they dragged his coat closer, over their shoulders, and the way their little black eyes glistened with unshed tears made him just want to comfort them, somehow.

The glitching was something he'd heard countless times, but when a faint chitter rose in the air, Henrik glanced around in confusion, looking for the source. Finding no sign of any insects or broken fans it might belong to, he swivelled back to the important task of keeping his patient steady, as they rounded the corner, heading towards the elevator.

Each footfall was carefully timed to let those shaky legs set the pace, and Henrik's grip on their shoulder tightened whenever they seemed ready to go farther than Irwin could have balanced through.

The blue ring lit around the elevator call button, and the doctor led him inside the machine when it arrived.

Once there, he had to release Irwin's arm to push the down button, curving them farther into his chest to compensate for the imbalanced stance.

Irwin must've been more tired than they thought because they were leaning heavily on Schneep to keep moving forward. They chittered happily every time the doctors grip on them tightened, their spidery instincts happy to be held close.

When they reached the elevator, they knew they wouldn't able to walk too far down the next hallway once they reached it. They were dangerously close to simply collapsing where they stood, and they needed to tell the doctor so that they didn't fall hard onto the tile floor.

"Doctor, I need to sit down," they said quickly, clutching at his scrubs. There was a light sheen of sweat building up on their skin, and they wanted to take off their beanie, but they were concerned they'd fall down if they let go of the doctor in any capacity.

As the floor jerked with the elevator heading down, Henrik suddenly had the small thing clutching his front, clinging to him. He could feel their legs shake, and saw the lump formed by the ones on their back slide around, as if looking for purchase.

Little fists gripped his scrubs, tiny claws pricking into the rough fabric. Forgetting the wheelchair, the doctor wrapped both arms, tightly, around the shaking frame clinging to his front, backing up a step as the machine shuddered between floors, and landing against the right wall, just next to the button panel.

"It's alright," he soothed, smoothing a sweat soaked brow with one hand, careful to avoid those extra eyes. Taking more of Irwin's weight, he found himself sliding down the wall, dragging them down to hold across their chest. "Anti is on his vay..."

And he knew, with absolute certainty, that this was true. Horror crept sluggishly up in his mind, only to be folded neatly away, like a set of scrubs. That wasn't necessary, right now.

Instead, what was needed was for him to sit, and wait, and comfort the fuzzy thing. He would do a good job.

Pale hand smoothing Irwin's hair, back, sliding their hat off, in the process, while his free one curved under their mid back, pulling them close, until he could feel them breathe against his neck, Henrik himself breathed much slower, vision swimming.

He would take good care of his patient, yes.

Maybe he could just get some rest, first?

Just a little sleep…

Hazy blue eyes shut on a faint whine as his mind panicked at the idea.

Irwin sat down heavily on the doctor's lap, letting out a sigh of relief. They wrapped their arms around him, but that made the coat pull uncomfortably on their spider legs. They sat up and pulled the coat off, struggling for a little bit to get it off, making little whines. They sighed once they got it off and their legs flexed a little.

Irwin snuggled back up to Schneep, pressing their face into his neck again. They chittered when the doctor pulled their hat off, the air cooling off their scalp. The doctor was relaxing beneath them, and they were safe and comfortable.

The urge to open their mouth and bite down on the tender flesh of the doctor's neck was growing. They tried not to think about it, but as their mind drifted to other thoughts, they didn't know they'd bitten down until the taste of his skin was on their tongue  and their fangs were flexing slightly as they pierced the flesh and there was the sensation of something flowing _out_ of them. The doctor made a soft noise and they jerked out of their stupor.

As the doctor became drowsier and drowsier, there was.... _something_ that was opening up to Irwin's senses, and they didn't know how to interact with it.

Concerned about how long they'd been pumping whatever-it-was into Schneep, Irwin withdrew their fangs, and a foul-tasting substance dripped onto their tongue, presumably from venom? It would make sense, what with the way he went limp.

His skin was burning, and he couldn't find it in him to do more than make a faint noise of discomfort, before subsiding. It didn't hurt all that long, after all.

Then, even if he'd wanted to pull the painful feeling away, he very quickly had no way to do so. His shoulders and neck felt so numb all he managed was to roll his eyes once, towards the door, and lay his chin against Irwin's head. His fingers weren't quite as numb, still holding the critter close.

His last thought before sleep over took his senses was how it felt like those strings in his head were being plucked by two sets of fingers.

And then he was gone.

The haze in his mind followed into his sleep, dreams hidden behind clouds like ruins after a pyroclastic flow. Faint images filtered in and out of view, and all he could do was stumble towards them, mindlessly.

He felt stifled, like his thoughts had been sponged clean and he needed to clear them. Only as he cleared them, the images grew worse, until he was holding a scalpel, gleaming and beautiful, over his patient's prone form.

Jack. There was a red line across his throat. The scalpel suddenly began to drip with more blood than could possibly be on it, until he dropped it and it bubbled in a spreading pool on the floor.

But he could save him. He was Dr. Schneeplestein. He could save his friend. He was already threading the needle for stitching the wound back up when Jack's hand shot up to catch his wrist.

Black eyes and a wicked smile looked up at him, upside-down.

"Thanks for the hand, Schneep," Anti purred.

Something _strange_ happened as Irwin sat there. It was kind of like when they got really invested in a book and they stopped seeing the words they were reading and instead saw the world those words painted, except they knew somehow that they were seeing Schneep's dreams. What?? The fuck?? They watched, intrigued by the scene playing out. As they watched, the dream started turning into a nightmare and as their hands shifted in the material of the doctor's shirt, the dream did too. Carefully, like a scientist, they shifted their fingers one at a time to see if and how it would affect the dream.

Slowly, Irwin realized that they were actively affecting the doctor's dream with motions like pulling on strings and thoughts of if and how it would get worse. At the same time, they noticed that they were getting their energy back in their legs, but there was no way they could've recovered from an exertion like that so quickly right?? They'd had to stay sitting on the stairwell much longer than this, what was the difference?

Irwin had a theory, but they desperately wanted to be wrong. Abruptly, they pulled away from the dream, trying not to affect it and just letting it play out. As that cold, sick feeling of dread stirred in the pit of their stomach again, they snuggled further into the doctor as if being cuddly would somehow make up for accidentally being a horrible person. Their eyes went half lidded as they got sleepy, and they idly chewed on the fabric of Schneep's shirt with their fangs.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i meant to upload this yesterday, but i got house flipper a couple days ago and acquired a new addiction. seriously, i sunk about 15 hours into it in a 48 hour period.
> 
> anyway, here's the last bit! there's an honest-to-fuck tickle fight, idk what happened

The gleaming doors of the elevator revealed the reflection of a very human, if sharply angled, Anti as he waited impatiently for them to open. He had a thermos hanging from his belt, and was fully clothed. The only sign of his recent feeding was a smeared stain on his black jeans, much like someone who'd idly licked his fingers, only to rub them on his pants. The stain, though hard to see on the black material, flaked brown. 

His Matrix had led him right to his offspring, and he made a slightly alarmed chitter at the thought that Schneep had managed to last so long, wanting to hurt them, before succumbing to the webbing that made him only want to guard and feed the hatchling. He'd always been stubborn -harder to break, in his way, than Jackieboy Man, though maybe not as obnoxiously hard as Marvin- but Anti would simply have to add more layers to fix that problem. No one would harm his babies.

When the doors finally opened, his two main eyes swept back and forth, around the seemingly empty machine, before falling to the floor, where he stopped, leaning his palm on the door to keep it from closing on its own, and watched, a low croon of pride replacing his earlier worry call.

There was his little coffee bean, curled up, under Schneep's coat, almost like a blanket. And there was the good doctor, lost in nightmares, still cradling the spiderling, as the Puppets had been programmed to. Irwin's lips nummied over Schneeplestein's shirt front, and Anti could hear the faint click of teething fangs snicking against each other, gnawing on the fabric of the scrubs.

It was an adorable sight. They were doing such a good job, for their first, non-aided, feeding. Anti's croon settled on a soft static hiss as he examined the tiny fang marks near the base of Schneep's neck. Ah. That would explain how deep under he was.

He'd have to work on how much venom they injected. Schneep both was immune to the destructive properties of the stuff, like the other egos, and had more of a tolerance for it, but too much could cause paralysis, and even death, in a human.

But he couldn't be upset when looking at the adorable thing.

Thinking about it, he made a decision. Pulling off his t shirt, he idly dropped it on Schneep's leg, a glitchy, shimmering patch forming on his back and spine as his legs shivered into being. Bending down, he scooped up his little Irwin in his arms, tucking the coat around them, before using his spider limbs to bring Schneep up to his embrace, as well.

Irwin looked up at the sound of Anti's crooning, and chittered at him, a string of saliva connecting them to Schneep's shirt breaking coolly against their chin. They blinked up at him, watching with interest as those long black legs shimmered into existence. As Anti bent down, they reached up with their arms and wrapped them around his shoulders as they were picked up, their spider legs automatically wrapping around Anti as well.

The trip to Irwin's room was slow, but measured. Eventually they all reached it. Anti idly dropped Schneep at the foot of the bed, still cradling Irwin, before unhooking the thermos and belt for good measure, setting them on the side table. That way Irwin wouldn't have to have a metal buckle in their side.

Carefully scooching down into the bed, Anti pulled Irwin up to his chest, adding the blankets. Then, with his legs, he hauled the limp doctor up to sprawl over his lap, within Irwin's reach.

Irwin chittered again and rested  their cheek against his shoulder as Anti brought all of them back to the bedroom. They didn't notice the thermos until it clunked on the wood of the side table.

"Did you bring me food?" they asked, a high-pitched duplicate of their voice layering over their normal one. They snuggled into Anti's side beneath the blankets for warmth and watched as Anti pulled the limp doctor closer.

"I didn't kill him, did I?" Irwin asked worriedly. Deciding they gave no fucks, they gave in to their new urges and bent over to chew on the collar of Schneep's scrubs with their fangs. They gently scritched at the doctor's scalp with one hand, running their fingers through his soft hair.

The weight of his Coffee Bean and Schneep was a soothing one, a blanket of sorts. The feeling of those tiny limbs reaching back to wrap around his body left Anti trilling softly even after Irwin had slid down the snuggle into his side. 

"No. Though he likely won't wake for hours, yet." He curved his left arm across Irwin's front. "Schneep and my other cousins don't react like most humans, do, to the venom." As Irwin dragged the unconscious man closer, nibbling on his collar, Anti joined them in giving Schneep an idle petting, adding, "Normally, I would have thought them good choices for young, because of it, but they are far more useful this way. You'll need to choose between keeping prey that can withstand your venom, or making offspring, one day." The pros and cons were based off of instinct, mostly. Creating a nest, or keeping a store of food for a much longer period of time.

Speaking of food... "And yes, I brought you some thinned beef broth, for this evening, to help get your metabolism going. Tomorrow we'll see about more solid foods. Don't worry, you'll have pizza again, soon."

Stopping his petting of Schneep's green fuzz, he reached for the thermos, handing it to Irwin. Beef broth, watered down, with some veggie broth and salmon added. High protein, but also good for flushing them out, and a good trainer for getting used to liquid meals. "I figured you'd kill me if I made you drink prune juice, so I had apple juice and water brought up to your room, instead." He flicked a spider limb out to open the bottom door of the side table, revealing a mini fridge. "If you can handle those without cramps, I'll get you coffee."

Anti, normally, wasn't the sort to listen to if you wanted to be soothed to sleep. But his voice, at the moment, was a deep drone, laced with  _ you're safe _ clicks and chitters, as he rubbed Irwin's stomach with the hand pinned between them and Schneep's body. He'd been worried about them, and holding the little explorer close lent a feeling of calm to the murderous abomination.

"Oh good," Irwin said, voice slightly muffled by the fabric, "I was worried about that. Your cousin, huh? That's one hell of a family resemblance." They made a noise at the mention of offspring. "I've been awake for not even two collective hours after turning into a fucking spider, and you're already talking about grandkids? Slow down, man."

"Oh sweet, finally," Irwin said as they grabbed the thermos. They sat up, leaning against Anti, and opened the thermos to sniff the contents. Having determined it was in fact what Anti said it was, they began to drink slowly, even though they wanted to chug it. Eating quickly after not eating for a while was bad, right? Better not take any chances.

They lowered the thermos after a few moments. "Ah yes, apple juice and water, a feast fit for kings," they said dryly. They continued to drink the broth, breathing through their nose as they leaned comfortably against Anti. He was petting them and making soothing noises, and Irwin felt safe.

In practically no time at all, Irwin had finished off the broth with a sigh and handed it back to Anti. They squirmed back into a comfy position where they could maximize body heat contact against Anti as well as continue to chew on Schneep's scrubs.

"I like to think I wear the skin better, and have more shapely legs," Anti purred, flexing a spidery limb, only to chuckle at the complaints about the offspring talk. "And food as well. Important distinction, there. Plus, you're old enough to know about the birds and the bees and the spiders and harvestmen." 

As Irwin leant forward to suckle on their broth, Anti shifted until he could shift his limbs to start wrapping around them all, as well. A bit more tightly around Schneep, in case he woke up and tried to move. Everyone knew you didn't take away a child's binky. Or let it walk away.

"Before you sleep, how about practicing closing and opening each of your eyes?" Anti asked, taking the thermos back and setting it on the nightstand.

"Ugh, fine," Irwin said. They straightened out and pushed down the blanket far enough that Anti could see their abdominal eyes. They also took off their glasses and set them on a clear spot on the bed, since having them on while both sets of facial eyes were open was uncomfortable.

They  _ hated _ having to focus on the new parts of their anatomy. It was physically unpleasant, bordering on body horror, and it reminded them exactly  _ how _ they'd become this. The facial eyes were easier, though; it felt more like an extension of their normal eyes, since the view out of them was so similar. It just made their field of vision wider, that was all. They spent a few minutes opening and closing their facial eyes, slowly growing more used to them.

The abdominal eyes were much less pleasant, mainly because they had to make themself aware of the fangs in their abdomen as well. Grumbling a bit, Irwin practiced those eyes as well for a few minutes, until they felt a little less foreign.

When they were done, Irwin turned into Anti's side for that sweet sweet physical contact, pulling the blanket back up. "I'm not even that tired. Can you hand me my phone? It should be reasonably charged by now."

Anti calmly took a hold of Schneep's scrubs, to keep the limp form from flopping over as Irwin moved the blankets. Watching intently, Anti nodded when he felt they were doing well enough to add another layer to the challenge. "I'll give you your phone once you've shown you can close all but your main two eyes," he promised, claws drumming on the nightstand. "We'll work on your legs and chelicerae once they've finished hardening."

He frowned, slightly, at the grumbling, sensing reverberations of shame and self loathing and disgust at what Anti had done to them. He almost growled at that, annoyed by the idea that they would be  _ upset _ at what he'd given them, but forced himself silent, a fission of glitching hissing along his body, instead. It wasn't their fault, that they were so naive. They'd only been awake for a few hours. Let them realize how much they could  _ do _ this way, and they'd come around.

He'd give them time.

"You're not my mom," Irwin whined, even as they complied, turning onto their back again.

The task was a surprisingly difficult one, though. They closed their abdominal ones easy enough, but trying to close their secondary eyes surprisingly difficult. They'd never had trouble winking, but perhaps this was what it was like to have trouble doing so, they mused as they focused.

There. Finally. Perfectly normal human vision, with no extraneous field of view. Why them? Why did it have to be them? They hated feeling so helpless like this, even as those spider senses scratching at the base of their skull were soothed by Anti's nearness. There was just...  _ so much _ to process. It was like the most brutal growth spurt they'd ever experienced, except there were so many new limbs and senses to get used to, and it was awful. 

They briefly had a vision of tearing out their claws with a set of pliers, but then turned away from the intrusive thought, cringing at it. No, that would be too unpleasant, no matter how much they hated the new skin they were in.

"Alright, I did the thing. Can I have my phone now?" Irwin mumbled.

"Hmm," Anti made a non-committal sound, whether to the mother comment, or the asking for the phone, he didn't elaborate on. Instead, as more pain flashed through Irwin's thoughts, he softly chittered, handing over the device to sooth them, at the same time as trilling into their hair.

"You're doing such a good job," he murmured, claws flexing slightly as he stroked the tense webbing in Irwin's brain, replacing the taut lines of fear with a faint reflection of the hazy contentment he'd poured into Schneep's brain at the thought of helping the young spiderling. "Do you want Schneep back?" He offered the man like a teething ring, strength casual in holding him by the collar.

Irwin chittered as they took the phone back, feeling a little soothed by the noises. They considered the doctor and their urge to continue to nom, and then tugged at Schneep's scrubs until the man's torso was positioned such that they could chew on the collar while looking at their phone over his shoulder. They were slowly relaxing, the self-hatred becoming smothered by warm contentment.

They turned on their phone and waited for it to boot and- oh holy fuck, that was bright. They whined at the bright light and squinted at their phone until they managed to turn the brightness down. And now to get out of the lock screen, oh man that was a lot of missed messages and calls.

They spent about 40 minutes responding to messages -  _ no i'm not dead, i just got really sick but now i'm feeling better _ as well as  _ sorry i didn't see this sooner, i've been busy _ and there were a couple people that responded back to them, so they had to deal with those too. Once caught up with that, Irwin went into their tumblr and scrolled for a while. They accepted that trying to catch up completely was a futile task, so after about half an hour of scrolling, they messaged a couple of their mutuals to ask what they missed while they were away.

As Irwin tapped away on their phone, they yawned, growing a little sleepy. They figured Anti would probably want them to put their phone down in favor of sleep, which they weren't especially keen on doing. "How much am I supposed to be sleeping?" they asked. "I've been asleep for a week, how much more could I possibly need to sleep?"

Anti watched his young's phone for a bit, idly chuffing, "I'd avoid telling anyone what you are. I'll be working on showing you how to hide it all so you can effectively ambush." He yawned, still a bit tired, himself, after a week without sleep, before releasing Schneep's scrubs to reach down and pull out his own phone. A call from Irene, and a text, asking how his trip went. She was so sweet. She'd done wonders for little gestating Irwin.

He texted back, explaining he was back in town and would be heading home, soon. Just staying with Chase for a bit to defrag.

Both Spooder Abominations toyed with their phones until Irwin spoke. Clicking the power button, watching the screen go black, Anti shrugged. "You'll sleep as much as you need. Did you think it was easy on a body to grow as much as you did?"

"Why the hell would I wanna ambush someone, I just wanna blend in," Irwin said. They yawned again, fangs clicking. Stubbornly, they continued tapping away despite their eyelids growing gradually heavier.

"I mean, I know newborn babies sleep for like two-thirds of the day or more, I just wanna know if I should be expecting to sleep for that much for fuck-knows-how-long the baby stage of whatever this is," they mumbled.

"Because you need to feed to grow into a big, strong, spooky spooder." The oddly childish terminology was punctuated by tickling fingers in Irwin's side, and a glitch of giggles along their neck as another glitched echo booked their head. 

Still tickling, Anti chittered, "You'll sleep as much as you need. It makes feeding easier during this stage, anyway." Now both hands were in on the torment.

Irwin giggled at the tickling, their voice glitching. When Anti added a second hand to the mix, they shrieked, a glitchy noise noise of delight as they squirmed away from those tickling hands.

"Stop!" they giggled. Their spider legs tried to twitch closed around Anti, moving like they were trying to push Anti away.

Anti paused, tilting back his head, thoughtfully, the line on his throat curving into a smile. He even tapped a claw on his lips.

Finally, he shifted Schneep off his legs and rolled out from under Irwin, glitching fissions down his body. "No," he said, simply, grinning as he winked two black eyes.

If Irwin was going to strain to stay awake, then he'd just have to tire out baby, wouldn't he?

Pushing up with his spider limbs until he was prowling forward with his humanoid claws, he pounced forward, viciously tickling his newborn's side.

Irwin barely had a chance to catch their breath when Anti attacked them with tickles again. They giggled loudly, almost laughing, and pulled their legs up to shove at Anti with their knees. They writhed on the bed, trying to squirm away from the "vicious attack", laughing the whole time.

"Sto-hop, I can't breathe!" they exclaimed. They dropped their phone on the bed beside them to shove at Anti's hands.

Anti arched into the blow from the knees, allowing Irwin to press aside his hands. For a second, he let them feel they'd won, before another double-eyed wink and his pedipalps were flexing forward, straight for their now unprotected belly.

Fuzzy, hairy pedipalps made an almost running motion, like a digging chihuahua, across their tummy, and Anti blepped, childishly, with his throat tongue.

"Whatcha gonna do, now?" He taunted, moving the pedipalps up to tickle under Irwin's arms.

Irwin shrieked at the new tickle assault, glitchy laughter bubbling out of their throat. They felt their throat jaws flexing, and the fangs in their abdomen flexing as well, trying to reach up towards Anti and slice at him or something.

"Ah! No, stop!" they giggled. They squirmed harder, trying to pry those fuzzy limbs off of them.

"Who's a vicious thing?" It was silly, it was childish, and it was something he'd heard Schneep say to his youngest when they frowned and threw a temper tantrum. Chittering happily at the little limbs and jaws flexing upwards to defend themself, Anti let Irwin's chelicerae catch hold of one of his pedipalps, like you would let a kitten pounce on a toy.

Sharp fangs dug harmlessly into the furry ligament, not yet strong enough to pierce chitin armour, as Anti folded the other one back out of the way. 

"You have me at your mercy. What are you going to do?"

Irwin's abdominal fangs reflexively tried harder to dig in. Bubbles of laughter continued to trickle out of them as they caught their breath. They could feel their face splitting in a wide grin, and for the first time since they'd walked in on Anti in their apartment earlier that week, there wasn't a trace of fear or self-hatred in their system, and they realized that in that moment, as they looked up at Anti's grinning face, they sincerely viewed him as parental figure, and the realization made them stop in their tracks, going lax against the mattress.

Anti....  _ sincerely _ cared about them. Not as a human, but as an Otherworldly that  _ sincerely _ believed that he'd given them a gift. He wasn't being malicious, he just honestly thought he was doing them a favor.

Irwin had no idea what to do with this revelation. They blinked up at Anti, trying to process it. It was a fact; The sun shone, water froze, and Anti wanted to elevate them to what he believed was a greater existence. They didn't know what to do with this knowledge, but they could... they could exist with it. For now at least.

But their shiny new spidery instincts were itching to fite, to play, to be fierce and bitey, and so Irwin grinned, ignoring the existential crisis forming in the back of their head, and they brought their right leg up to shove their foot at Anti's hip in a probably futile attempt to flip him over. Their spider legs on the right half of their body came up to help too, weakly pressing at Anti's ribs.

As Irwin went still, beneath him, Anti froze, head tilting curiously, and a faint, reassuring chitter sifting from his lips, as if to say  _ I'm not actually trying to eat you. _

Irwin's mind didn't feel frightened, just locked in one of those intensely thought out little moments that they sometimes had, that often ended in a clever idea or twelve, some revelation, something. Anti held still, for once, allowing it to go on, uninterrupted, but for his instinctive chittering.

And then his offspring was back, eyes focused and giggling like a little shit as they shoved at Anti's right-hand side with legs both human and spider.

Black eyes glittering with mirth, Anti allowed the tiny, fuzzy, hooked feet to send him into a controlled topple, landing with his knees and calves still on the bed, but his back on the floor.

He even made a show of sticking all eight spider limbs in the air, and wiggling them.

Irwin sat up, a giggle tumbling out as Anti acted like a goof. Instinct bid them to follow, and so they crawled on the bed towards him, and braced themself as they calculated how best to pounce on him without getting hurt due to weak limbs. They straddled his shins, and their spider legs were moving, a little faster than they'd been before in excitement, and the movement threw them off balance, sending them toppling over.

Irwin managed to catch themself before they hit their face, and they scrambled to right themself. They ended up straddling Anti's waist, and their legs came down to weakly stab at his shoulders, chest, and legs. They chittered loudly, and it was a bright, gleeful noise as they smiled.

Anti watched placidly as Irwin tried to pounce. He could almost imagine them like a small cat, eyes wide and dark, maybe even the butt wiggle.

And then, like a young cat, they were flopping and scrabbling and pretending  _ nothing happened you did not see that _ and scritching at him with fuzzy leggies ending in hardened spikes. 

Anti made sure to wriggle about in such a way that those new limbs scratched across his softer, human shell, rather than chitinous armour. They were still soft, and he didn't want them to pull too hard or bruise against hard chitin.

Instead, little scratches, mostly white lines, but a few deep enough to drip red, appeared on his chest, as he chittered in response, before suddenly locking his limbs down, squishing Irwin back into his arms, trilling contentedly. 

"You'll do so well, Irwin," he muttered, again.

Irwin allowed themself to be pulled against Anti's warm chest and relaxed, attempting to imitate the trill. Exertion thrummed along their muscles, making them sleepy, and they yawned.

The mention of the future made some of the self-loathing creep back. Anti fed off of pain didn't he? Irwin would have to do the same. The thought made them sick.

"I don't wanna hurt people," they whispered. "Maybe if they were a bad person, but... I don't wanna hurt innocent people."

"And I want you to be safe, and strong, and well fed." Anti was staring up at the ceiling with all the mental exhaustion of someone explaining a math problem for the fortieth time.

"If you want to feast on your enemies, I understand. But you still need to build a Matrix, for protection." He shrugged, shoulders rubbing into the carpet. "You know as well as I do that there are scarier things than me out there."

"Yeah, I know," Irwin mumbled. They sighed, and it was a heavy, weary sound. "I know I'll have to be more like you in order to live. To survive. To thrive. But the thing is, I can barely even stand up to those who're mean to me. I don't have a single mean bone in my body and you know it. And to be more like you is, like, a complete 180 for me. That shit'll take time and right now, I don't  _ want _ to be cruel. I never asked for this, I don't wanna  _ be _ this, I don't wanna be mean like you, but deep down I know it's gonna happen whether i like it or not and-" Irwin's voice started choking up, tears leaking out of their eyes. "-and it's just so  _ scary _ , I can barely even use my  _ human _ legs let alone all this new shit, how the fuck do you expect me to evolve into something like you?"

Irwin clutched at Anti tighter, letting out hiccupy little sobs.

Anti let them babble, let the building pain pour out like a fresh wound. He frowned at another iteration of not wanting this, but held his tongues, for now. Instead, he let them cry, for a time, soft chitters, slow and steady, rattling his lower jaw like a purr.

After a couple minutes, of this, feeling warm, wet tears start to properly drip down his chest, he used his limbs to push them both, high up, tilting until he ended up, seated, back on the bed, clutching Irwin close.

"Like this," he answered, simply, hauling Schneep over to his knees and setting his hand on his head.

Instantly, the man's eyes opened, wide. He still seemed asleep, though, and his mouth sagged open, in a silent scream, as he stared into a foggy abyss spawning whatever horrors Anti created.

And he closed himself off from the meal, stomach rolling as he did, and let the energy flow straight to Irwin, instead.

Irwin's crying petered off as Anti shifted back onto the bed. They twisted around just enough to see what Anti was doing. As that clawed hand settled on Schneep's head, the doctor's face immediately twisted into that of raw terror, glassy eyes gazing into some beyond only he could see.

After a couple moments, energy began to flow into them, settling beneath their ribcage like a heavy meal, and they could almost taste the emotions on the back of their tongue. They'd done something like this before, Irwin realized, back in the elevator. They'd  _ fed _ off of the doctor's nightmares earlier. Was this like how vampires fed, when they had a particular friend that consented to the feeding? Except there was  _ no way _ any of this could be consensual, their kind literally ate pain, wouldn't making it consensual result in less pain to eat?

It was a necessary evil, Irwin decided. They'd only take that which would sustain them enough to blend in, and only from those who would deserve it. Just because they had to hurt people to live didn't mean they'd have to enjoy it, right? And they could make them feel better afterward, too.  To ease their conscience of course.

But they didn't wanna have to deal with all of that quite yet. "Can I just. Wait until I regain my strength to deal with all of this?" Irwin asked quietly. "I just. I need more time to process this. To accept that this is really- that it's really happening. And then you can teach me. Just teach me what I need to know in order to blend in and keep myself safe."

Anti nodded, but did not release Schneep for a good few minutes, yet. Not until he felt as if it were leveling off as it poured into his young. Better gorged than starved.

"You'll have time. Much more than you would have, as a walking human sacrifice." He sniffed, eyes on the window as he thought about the Prof. He didn't like people he couldn't eat.

Or those who could control him.

"Blending in will be the first lessons. Eat, and grow strong, and you'll be fine. And I'll teach you what you need to know to survive, and thrive, my coffee bean." His gaze slid back to Irwin. 

He'd have to work on those morals of theirs. But he had time to help them past that hurdle.

"Good baby." He chittered, low and staticky, into their hair.

Irwin was full, in multiple ways. The fullness made them lethargic, and the little bit of exercise they had was making them lean further into Anti. They yawned widely, and their eyes went half-lidded. Maybe they  _ would _ last longer like this; they'd already had countless close calls with the Professor, and maybe being more like Anti would make the Otherworldly think twice about ravaging their frail body during rituals.

They chittered back quietly, reassured by the unspoken implication that they'd have time before Anti got started with lessons. For now, though, they'd just learn how to exist in their own skin again, and let Anti guide them and soothe them, just like a mother with an infant. They turned their face into Anti's chest and closed their eyes, letting their spider legs relax as they gently bit at the flesh accessible to them. As they slipped gradually into sleep, the biting tapered off. At the edges of their awareness, they could sense Anti's legs closing around them like a cage and Irwin fell asleep, warm, comfortable, safe, and well-fed.


End file.
